Spring Ranting
by Orane
Summary: AU. After her dad gets promoted, Sora has no choice but to live with her mom in Odaiba, a place she'd been trying so hard to forget. Now she's forced to face certain events and people she'd been avoiding for four years. Ch. 12 is finally up!
1. Sora's Chauffeur?

Disclaimer: I do NOT own this darn f-ing anime!

o

A/N: Well, here it is! I made a new story! I guess I needed a little something to side track me for a while. I think I just got tired of writing just one fic. (Even if that's all I could manage to write right now.)

****So after many years of sitting here, sadly incomplete, my story will finally see an ending! I know I left you all hanging, but drastic life events have occurred in the past few years but I'm back! I'm hoping no one gave up on this yet =)) Anyway I have revamped each chapter and am currently working on the ending for Spring Ranting. I have an ending planned out and just a few more chapters to go. I wanna give a big thanks for those who are still reading my stories.

Spring Ranting

chapter 1 - Sora's Chauffeur?

Spring was finally here and classes were soon ending, making room for the highly anticipated Spring Break-something Sora Takenouchi couldn't hold out for any longer.

She looked out the window eagerly, gazing at the distractingly blue sky and the white puffs of powdery snow covering the tops of a semi-distant mountain. She sighed softly, dreaming of snowboarding down those smooth, crisp slopes outlining the contours of the mountain.

_I need to...I have to...at least one run down that mountain before the snow melts_! she thought, her eyes desperately longing for the feel of the cool rush of air biting at her lips and brushing against her cheeks, the feel of a smooth sail down that slope, the-

"Miss Sora Takenouchi! If you're going to daydream, do it at home! As far as I can tell there's no class teaching Daydreaming this semester," Mrs. Tokugawa snapped, slapping a thick ruler on her desk, causing her to jump. Mrs. Tokugawa's spinster-like eyes were gleaming through thin-rimmed glasses that were just WAY too big for her crinkled, box-like face.

"I-I'm sorry Mrs. Tokugawa," Sora stammered, calming her racing heart. She watched as the old bag turned back and trotted slowly to the front of the class, simultaneously drifting back to the lecture. Sora heard a couple giggles and a snicker here and there, but she simply ignored them. She was pretty much used to it. All those days of drifting off into a daydream during class...

_Stop it! Not now! If Dad finds out you're having a hard time with Geometry, he'll take away your snowboard or send you back to Odaiba with Mom_, Sora told herself grudgingly, forcing herself to pay attention. The last thing she wanted was to be sent back to that damn town she hated so much.

Why did she have to have Geometry during first period anyhow?

Slowly and inadvertently, Sora's head began to turn toward the cottony mountain, wooing her to come to it, beckoning her to step into its soft powdery...

"Miss Takenouchi!"

"Sorry!"

O

O

"I'm home!" Sora called down the hall as she opened the door to her house. She stepped out of her shoes and ran straight to her room, throwing her books and backpack carelessly on the floor.

"I'm in here Sor," her father called from his office. Sora popped her head in and noticed that her father was on the phone with someone he probably knew really well. She tried to listen to the conversation, but by the time she was able to fully hear it, her father said his goodbyes and hung up. He turned to her with a strange look in his eyes.

"Dad?" she asked wonderingly.

A small smile crept across his face. "I got promoted baby!" he yelled, grabbing Sora who excitedly grabbed him back. The two jumped in ecstatic joy like two little giddy school girls. (Technically Sora was a school girl but, you know what I mean.)

"Oh my gosh! That's awesome Dad!"

"And I'm moving to New York for three months!" his father suddenly blurted out. Sora stopped jumping.

"Wait..._you're_ moving to New York?"

"Yes, isn't it great? I'm going to be working with the big executives of Matahari Jewelers! In New..." he paused, allowing the words "New York" to sink into his system. "...York," he breathed, staring off into space with a goofy smile on his face.

Sora had long ago stopped being excited and was now thoroughly confused and a bit agitated at that.

"You're...taking me with you, right?" she asked, her crimson eyes searching into her father's eyes.

There was a pause. Then he spoke slowly, his eyes averting hers. "Sora...I was actually on the phone with your mother a second ago-"

With that, Sora instantly knew where it was going. "No! Dad! You can't do this to me! You know how it was for me in Odaiba! I can't go back there! Besides, Mom and I have problems!" Sora complained. She couldn't believe it! She was being sent away even if he hadn't known about her bad marks in Geometry. "I thought you, of all people, would understand! Why do you think you've been taking care of my ass, here, these last few years and not Mom?"

"I know Sora, but you're not looking at the big picture! This is the perfect time for you and your mother to patch some things up, set aside differences, and maybe...um...get along?" his father said, hoping to reassure her. She scoffed and folded her arms. "You know, Odaiba might be a different place from the last time you were there," her father continued.

"I highly doubt it! Four years isn't that long ago," Sora muttered. Her father sighed and placed his hands on her shoulders, making it so that she'd have to look in his eyes.

"Sora, I'll only be gone for three months. I'll be back, and if you want, you can come back with me if you decide that Odaiba is crappy and hasn't changed one damn bit," he said. Sora said nothing. "Sora, this is really important to me."

She gave him a sideways glance. She did notice how hard her dad had been working the past few months. Why shouldn't he be allowed to get what he deserved? She felt she was just being selfish anyway. Keeping him from what he loved to do, and from what he HAD to do-all for her sake. She wanted him to be happy, right? Even if it was at the expense of her own happiness.

"When are you leaving?" she asked, wearily.

"Sunday."

"Sun-wh-" she sighed, biting her lip. "Fine," Sora simply answered.

"Really? Yes! Oh, you're the best daughter a man could ever have!" Mr. Takenouchi exclaimed, giving his daughter a small peck on the forehead and a short squeeze on the arm.

Sora sighed as she watched her father excitedly prepare for his three month trip. She smiled slightly, hoping that Odaiba would be at least a little decent to her now.

Also, she hoped to the gods that she didn't happen to bump into _him_ while she was there...

O

O

The Sunday of the big trip had arrived.

Early that morning, Mr. Takenouchi sent Sora on a plane and told her that the rest of her things would be shipped in a couple hours. She was allowed only a backpack for the plane ride. (Which, for her, meant a toothbrush and a good pair of socks.) Sora continued to protest, stomping her feet and crying out some last minute complaints, but Mr. Takenouchi only shooed her all the more insistently.

_Was he that excited to get rid of me? _Sora wondered, popping a gummy bear in her mouth as she prepared herself for the landing. She shifted comfortably before glancing outside the half-opened window. Just a few hundred feet below, she could see the last bits of winter snow melting atop the distant mountains.

"No snowboarding this break," she whispered to herself morosely.

Odaiba wasn't exactly the best place to be at when one wanted to take a skiing or snowboarding trip to the mountains. The area there was flat and warm and the cost for a ride to the mountains was ridiculously expensive.

The plane ride was smooth, silent, and excruciatingly boring. There was a reality show playing in one of the screens above her that featured people racing each other, seeing who could find and kiss the most white rabbits in the allotted time. The prize was a year supply of carrots.

Once the plane landed, she was slightly relieved, but also apprehensive. Maybe it would have been better if the plane never landed. That way she didn't have to go back to Odaiba, or see her mother!

_What if the plane crashed or had to have an emergency landing in the water! _she thought. Then reality came back to her. First of all, if the plane crashed, she'd probably be dead, and second of all, a plane ride from Okayama to the Odaiba Airport didn't require them to go over a significant amount of water. In fact, they had a much bigger chance of landing on buildings AND she'd probably be dead either way.

"Dammit..." she muttered.

"Welcome to Odaiba, we hope you enjoyed your flight, and from all of us at Destiny Air, thank you for flying the friendliest skies."

"Friendliest skies my ass...taking me back to this horrible town..." Sora grumbled as she exited the plane. She followed the herd of people exiting, assuming it was the way out. She looked around in search of her mother and couldn't find her familiar face.

_Where is she? Dad said she was going to pick me up... _She bit her lip slightly_. This is SO like her!_ she thought angrily. She hadn't been here one minute and her mother had already ditched her.

"Takenouchi? Is that you?" came a voice that Sora knew all too well. Her hope of not crossing paths with him suddenly became miniscule to just completely gone. She turned and saw the boy approaching her. She eyed him cautiously.

An arrogant look suddenly changed her expression. "Well, if it isn't Taichi Yagami," she said smugly. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I came to pick you up," he said with a genuine smile.

Sora discreetly examined his appearance. He looked almost the same as when they were in junior high school. That large mass of brown hair, that stupid lopsided grin, his "I'm cooler than you" look, and those damn colorful t-shirts that he wears all the time, and those dirt brown eyes.

The only difference she could find was that this time, he was taller than her.

"Wow, you kinda look like a girl now."

"You do to," Sora returned, snappishly.

"Hey, don't take offense. I'm merely stating the truth. I thought you'd take it as a compliment," Tai replied with a feigned innocent shrug.

"Just tell me why you're really here," Sora said blandly, with an exasperated sigh.

"To pick you up. Didn't I clarify this alrea-" he paused. "Oh...your mother didn't tell you, did she? Or are you still ignoring her?"

Sora's smirking face suddenly disappeared. "Will you quit your smug little questions and just tell me?"

"We're living together," Tai told her as if it was the most normal thing to say to a hated enemy. She stood there in shock as he continued to talk. "Need any help with that bag?"

O

O

O


	2. Tai's Little Secret

A/N: The revamp continues!

Spring Ranting

Chapter two - Tai's Little Secret

"Your mom told me to pick you up because of some last minute preparations she had for you," he told her, his body language saying that he was eager to get out of the airport. Unfortunately, Sora couldn't comprehend what he was saying at the moment.

"Hey...Takenouchi? You all right?" Tai asked, snapping his fingers in her face. She was in too much shock to respond.

_How could he be living with her? How come Mom or Dad never said a single thing about Tai and his family living in our house? No...this was a joke, it's all a joke_. She couldn't have to face her mother AND Tai at the same time! Facing latent problems with her mom was enough of a problem. Now Tai was living with her? She was already thinking up a dialogue between her and her mother because she knew it was going to be awkward, but now Tai was shoved in her face!

_The gods hate me...what did I do wrong?_

_It's your Geometry grades_, her conscience told her. Well...her conscience could be right...she really should've told her dad about those grades...

"Takenouchi," Tai called again, this time, succeeding in getting her attention.

_Oh yeah, back to the subject_. "You're joking right?"

"No, I'm not. Man, you haven't changed at all. You're mind still processes slowly," Tai said, knowing, and purposefully knowing, that it would provoke her. He turned his back with a small gesture for her to follow him. Strangely, she didn't return with any comeback. She simply followed him as he made his way towards a red car.

Sora was so unaccustomed to seeing Tai with a car that she was slightly amazed. The last time she ever saw him, he was using that bike he found at the local metal dump site.

_What did you expect, Sora? It's been four years_, she told herself. She sighed and proceeded to enter.

"Hey, you need me to put that in the back?" Tai asked, offering to take her bag. She clutched it protectively to her chest.

"I'm fine," she responded with a small smile. The smile was fake, of course, just like the smile he was giving her back. Hey, at least he wasn't trying to dump anything on her head like many times before. He got into the front seat.

As Tai drove, Sora scanned the passing objects, signs, and people. It seemed slightly newer than last time. Now there were more houses and the area was less intimate, less close-knit. Four years ago, a person knew everyone within a 15-mile radius...since Odaiba only had a 15-mile radius to begin with. Now the small town seemed more like a mini cosmopolitan; the people around didn't seem to know squat about each other by the way they passed by one another. Plus there were TONS of tourists.

"Odaiba sure changed a lot," Sora couldn't help but say to herself.

"Odaiba wasn't the only thing that changed," Tai responded, even if he knew Sora's comment was rhetorical.

Sora turned to face him, but since she sat in the back seat, she couldn't see his expression. What the hell did he mean by that?

She decided not to dwell on it and proceeded to look out the window. As they stopped at a stoplight, a group of boys crossed the street. Sora hadn't noticed them at first, but then, a pair of blue eyes caught her attention.

She squinted into the sun. That blond hair, that face, those dark blue eyes. That boy was vaguely familiar...

Then she realized who it was. _Matt Ishida... _she thought and mouthed at the same time.

His eyes had caught hers, and the two locked gazes for a couple seconds before Matt continued on down the street. There was barely a spark of recognition, but Sora knew that Matt remembered her.

At the same time, the light turned green.

O

O

"Mrs. Takenouchi! Your daughter's home!" Tai called through the large apartment as he dropped his keys on a nearby counter. Sora watched the keys flop before her eyes began examining her surroundings. The house looked completely different! The walls were filled with paintings of wispy figures, male and female, some completely naked.

She watched Tai climb up the stairs, still calling for her mother as he disappeared down a corner. She slowly walked into the living room as if to make sure that it was still in the same section of the house.

There, she found an unexpected figure: A young girl, about 12 or 13, playing video games with a cat sitting next to her, scratching at the figures on the screen.

The girl turned, giving Sora a brief smile before continuing on with her game. "You're back Sora. Never thought I'd see you again," she said, surprising the redhead.

"Who..." Sora began, before recognition hit her. Of course! If Tai was living here, his sister obviously was too! "Kari?"

"Who else?" Kari asked, jokingly. "Wanna play video games Onee-chan?"

"Maybe later...where's my mom?"

"Probably upstairs still cleaning your room."

Sora smiled. Okay...so her mother was making her room all nice and perfect for her! She didn't ditch her after all!

Her smile widened as she headed up the stairs. She still felt probably more like a stranger in the house than Tai or Kari, but some strange form of nostalgia seeped into her as she crossed the subtly familiar house. She walked down the hall knowing that just a door down, her room lay. She gently pushed the door, trying hard not to make a sound as she opened it.

Inside, her mother was arranging a gift on the bed, twisting it here and there, unsatisfied with it's position on the futon. She moved away from it and gazed at it from a further position.

Sora felt a surge of endearment for her mom. _She's doing all this for me? _she thought, as she watched her mother slide it into a final position before turning to walk out the door.

She was surprised and slightly mortified when she found Sora peeking through the door. Then a smile slowly crept to her face before she wordlessly walked up to her daughter and gave her one of those motherly hugs.

"I've missed you," she whispered into her daughter's ear.

"I missed you too Mom."

"You never came to visit!"

"You never asked," Sora returned softly, looking up into her mother's familiar eyes. Everything about her was different, her figure, the way she wore her make-up, her hair was cut differently, and the clothes she wore looked like they were made specifically for her. But those eyes...they were still the same as they'd always been.

"I'm sorry honey...oh! I forgot to mention to you that Tai and Kari are living with us along with their mother. It-it just happened so fast...I mean, after Tai's dad got in that train accident, they couldn't pay for the-"

"What!" Sora exclaimed. She never knew Tai's dad got in an accident! If she did, she never would've been so mean to him!

"Yes...they couldn't afford to pay for the medical bills and they were already struggling financially, so I offered them our home. You're fine with it right?"

The way Mrs. Takenouchi asked the question made it difficult for Sora to disagree.

"Yeah...um, it's fine..." she replied. I think, Sora thought. The exact moment she saw Tai's face in the airport, all these horrible memories flooded back to her in mere seconds.

Now she had to live with him for three months?

"Great! I hope you two get along now that you're mature adults," her mother said, emphasizing the last phrase a little too obviously while her eyes stared into hers intently.

"I'll just avoid him. That way, I don't get the urge to sock him for all the years of utter torture he put me through."

"Sora. Please! Tai was mature enough to tell me himself that he wasn't going to try and fight with you this time."

Sora sighed. "Fine...sure... It's just that every time I see him, I just want to blow his head off," Sora said, her teeth slightly grinding.

"I hope that's not some naughty euphemism about the fantasies you have of me," Tai's teasing voice came from the halls. He was leaning on the threshold, arms crossed, with that lopsided grin pasted on his face.

Sora rolled her eyes before her gaze fell on him. "You wish Yagami."

"Whatever Take-"

"You two! That's enough!" Mrs. Takenouchi turned to Tai. "You promised not to start any fights!" Then she turned to Sora. "You agreed to be a mature adult!"

The two had their heads down and hands folded in the front. Mrs. Takenouchi gave a small smirk, remembering that they looked exactly like that when they were in elementary school and had been caught in a physical fight-except of course, back then, they weren't very tall and didn't have fully developed (ahem) body parts.

There was a very small, but distinguishable "sorry" from the guilty party, curling Mrs. Takenouchi's small smirk into a full-fledged smile.

"Good, now I'm going to go down and make lunch. You two behave yourselves," Mrs. Takenouchi said, pointing a finger at the two teens before leaving the room. She paused, "Oh, and that present on your bed is a key to the bike rack by the front door. Got you a red schwinn."

"Really? Wow…Thanks Mom, you didn't have to…" she murmured coyly. Sora always wanted a red schwinn cruiser. She couldn't believe her mom remembered. Mrs. Takenouchi simply smiled at her daughter before she shut the door quietly behind her.

Once she left, Sora's eyes turned to Tai. She scowled and poked him in the arm.

"Hey! What the hell was that for!" Tai growled, slightly shoving her away.

"Look what you did! My first hour here and Mom's already scolding me! And she got me a schwinn! A _SCHWINN. _If it wasn't for your nasty thoughts-"

"It was a joke!"

"You're always starting trouble!"

"Well, you're just a bitch!"

"I can't stand you!" Sora shouted, storming out of the room, leaving Tai fuming. He watched her slam the door before kicking the nearest thing to him-which happened to be a soccer ball on the floor.

"Stupid girl..." he muttered under his breath, trying to calm his wavering nerves.

So Sora's feelings about him still hasn't changed... _So...is it better that she never finds out?_ he asked himself.

To make sense of what he said, one would have had to dig not only into his past, but into his thoughts in the past (to present) as well. The reason being, Tai was as stubborn as they can get. He avoided emotional conversation, such as revealing hidden, passionate feelings about someone, or giving an in-depth "sorry" when he did something wrong.

But he wasn't just avoiding it; he just wasn't any good at telling people how he felt-because if he was...he'd express it damn well.

Well anyway, Tai did have some hidden feelings before Sora left and the feelings lingered long after she left, but of course, no one knew about the latter-not his sister, not his dad, not his mom, not even his cat. He kept it very well hidden from everyone. But to him, those feelings were as clear as glass after someone sprayed it with some Windex:

He liked Sora.

It was as simple as that. The thing was, he never planned on ever telling her how he felt—at least not for a while—since he expected she'd be living in Odaiba all her life. Unexpectedly, she moved a few days before Spring Break, on the same day four years ago that she arrived today (?). And only one day before her planned departure did he decide to tell her how he felt about her.

So he wrote her a little letter.

"Dear Sora" was crossed out and small sketches of stick figures were drawn around the side (probably out of boredom or indecision, but who knows?). It was slightly crumpled and the handwriting and grammar were horrible, but it was still very readable.

If he had nice penmanship and some grasp on grammar, it would have read something like this:

Sora,

There's no other way I could address you because I can't really describe how I feel about you. You're not "Dear Sora" or "My Darling whatever" because-I know this is hard to believe-but you may be more than that to me. So yeah...the reason I wrote this was because I like you, or rather, I have some weird feelings for you that won't seem to go away.

As you may know, I act like a total jackass to you, but I don't hate you at all, it's just my way of hiding how I feel about you from the others. I know, I sound like I'm ashamed of liking you but that's not it at all. I was just afraid that if you ever found out, you'd laugh and tell me off in front of everyone, and that would just hurt really badly. Even though in reality, I know you're a much better person than that. In fact I have a whole list of stuff that makes you a better person than I'll ever be, but you probably don't want to hear all that stuff about yourself.

So by now, you could probably tell that I'm no good at this "confession" stuff. But at least I finally told you how I felt, right?

You know something, I knew I felt something different about you ever since I met you. Do you remember third grade? Mrs. Satsuki told us the day before that we should bring something to class to give to someone else. So we all brought something to give, including me. I had this old, Superman Pez container that still worked and still smelled like sweet, yummy Pez. I handed it over to Kimi. She said thanks and whatever then gave her present to her friend Kazuki.

Everyone ended up with something except me. So I sucked it up and held out my egotistical pride, saying I was too mature for all that baby gift stuff-and then you walked over to me and handed me a hackey-sack that someone gave you, then without a word, you smiled at me and then walked back to your seat. You must've seen me kicking the seat in front of me or muttering to myself.

No girl has ever done that for me before, and I still think of it as one of the most genuine things a human being could do.

Man, you're probably reading it on your plane ride to Okayama and thinking, 'Wow, that idiot likes me huh?' or thinking 'Wow, that bastard's playing another joke on me.' or maybe even, 'Oh, that idiot's on some new kind of drug,' But it's not like that, believe me. Besides, if this was a joke, you can come back over here and smack me in the face as hard as you can.

You probably have better things to do right now, so I'll leave it at that. It would have been longer, but I already said too much, maybe even more than I wanted. But yeah, that's it. That's what I'd like to call, my rant before spring...or spring ranting.

Maybe I'll see you around then?

Love, Tai

O

O

O


	3. Let's Visit Odaiba High!

A/N: Woohoo!

Warning: Tai/Sora/Matt triangle. (Did I actually make one? Did I actually make one?)

Spring Ranting

chapter three - Let's Visit Odaiba High!

Tai rose from his bed and took a long stretch, yawning as he did so. He sunk back onto his bed, his head wriggling against his pillow until it found a comfortable position, and inadvertently glanced to his side.

That stupid note was lying there next to a dirty shirt.

Out in the open.

He quickly scrambled off of his bed and stuffed it in his underwear drawer. He didn't know why he still kept that thing. It was a horribly written note to give someone. You'd think a 12 year old kid would, at least, be decent in writing, but there were definitely a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes on that letter.

But...it's not like he was planning on giving it to anyone anyway.

Besides, Sora made it clear that she still had a stupid, childish grudge against him.

_Fine. If she's gonna act like that, I'll do the same_, Tai thought.

He walked over to his closet and grabbed a folded towel (one of the only nicely folded things in his room) and let it hang over his shoulder as he walked over to his door.

No one could possibly be awake at this time to get to the shower before him. Even during the weekdays. (Can you believe it? Not even their moms.) Besides, it was his usual routine. Wake up (freakishly early), take a quick shower, go downstairs, and cook breakfast.

Tai hummed softly, but as soon as he opened the door, his humming ceased.

There was Sora, standing right in front of him, with a towel slung over the same shoulder as Tai, her hands on the threshold. Their eyes met and were suddenly glued on each other, glowering, as if taunting the other just to see if they'd back down.

Then their eyes moved simultaneously towards the bathroom door, each knowing the intent of the other.

With a blur of instinct, their feet pushed off the carpet pavement as the two rushed to the door with mindless speed, each one being absolutely sure they would best the other.

In an instant, the silent war-like race was over, and the war of words began.

"Get the hell out of my way! I was here first!" Sora screamed.

"Like hell you were! I always get first dibs on the shower!" Tai snapped.

"Not until I got here!"

"Move!"

"You move!"

"I'm not moving! Get out of the way!"

They shoved and pushed, but the more they struggled, the more exhausted they became. Sora grabbed Tai's towel and threw it across the hall. Tai stopped yelling and his eyes glanced at the towel. Then he looked back at Sora.

"What the-" he began. Then he shut his mouth and reached for Sora's towel instead, throwing it in the same spot that Sora had thrown his.

The two ran to their towels and dove once they neared it.

"Get off of me!" Tai growled.

"You're the one who jumped me!" Sora snapped back, elbowing him in the chest.

"Okay, that is _IT_!" came a bellowing voice from the hall.

The two pairs of eyes slowly moved from the feet of the voice's owner, to their legs, and languorously up to their face.

Kari. Sweet, innocent Kari.

"You guys are waking the whole neighborhood up with your immature bickering! If that's the way you're going to act, there's only one way to decide who goes first," Kari stated. She paused, staring both teens straight in the eyes. A mischievous smile appeared on her lips. "I get the bathroom first," she said with a smile before walking into the bathroom and shutting the door softly.

Tai glared at Sora. She glared back. He bristled. She did the same.

"Look what you did."

"Wha-it's your fault too!"

This was going to be the longest three months ever.

O

O

"Sora, you do know that, here, the school break hasn't come yet," Mrs. Takenouchi stated.

"Yeah," Sora replied as she dug into her breakfast. After that "shower war" earlier in the morning, her energy was completely drained and the only thing on her mind at the moment was fooooood...

After a long struggle, she finally got to the shower after Tai, since at that time, he had snuck in without her knowledge while she was sitting back on the couch watching early-morning cartoons.

Her hair dripped onto her back. She shivered. She knew that Tai was evil enough to take all the hot water just to spite her. She'll get him back soon...

"Well, I have to give you two choices. You either go with me to the flower shop, or you go with Tai to school."

_That one's easy_, Sora thought with a short scoff. "I'll go with you of course."

Her mother smiled. "Okay. I have a list for you to do. Number one, you have to help me out with the flower shipment delivery coming in half an hour-oh and I need for you to stay late so you can help me with the late customers. There are usually a lot of them during the work week, and also these need to be sent directly to Mrs. Seta before her granddaughter's wedding and Mr. Stevens, he's a translator, can you believe it? Well, he wants these sent to his wife in Sendai so you need to-"

"Okay! I'll go with Tai!" Sora cried, exasperated.

Mrs. Takenouchi grinned. "Good. I already called the school and told them you were coming with him."

"Figures," Sora muttered, stuffing a hash brown in her mouth.

Sora absent-mindedly glanced towards Tai as he climbed down the stairs, his backpack slung over his left shoulder. She suddenly remembered that she used to make fun of him for being left-handed. (Hey, she was in elementary school. Kids in elementary schools are like bunnies—no-parasites; evil, confidence-sucking parasites.)

But now that the concept of "boy cooties" was passed off as just another urban legend (like Santa Claus), she thought Tai looked absolutely hot!

Sora shook her head violently. _Did I just think that? Did that thought just run through my head? _she wondered, hoping that she was wrong. She dared another glance at Tai.

Nope. She thought it all right.

Those broad shoulders, those lean, but oh-so defined arms, and that rock hard butt-

"Hey, Ms. T, how's your morning so far?" Tai greeted with that lopsided grin.

"Great. Yours?" the older woman responded.

"Really good actually," Tai replied. He then turned to Sora. "How was your shower?"

Sora glowered at him as he grinned stupidly at her.

"Oh Tai?" Mrs. Takenouchi called his attention.

"Yes?"

"Sora will be going with you to school today."

Tai's grin dropped. "Why?"

"Because I'll be very busy at work today and I want her doing something instead of sitting around in the house."

"Couldn't she help you around the shop Ms. T?" Tai asked sweetly.

"I'm afraid not. She doesn't know what to do. Besides, it'll be a hassle to explain everything to her today. The flower shop is too busy this week."

Tai huffed. "All right...come on." He walked out the door with Sora finishing her orange juice before hurrying out to catch up with him. Mrs. Takenouchi sat back and watched the two leave with a smile on her face. (She really did have an ulterior motive...)

O

O

"Tai," Sora called after him.

"What?" Tai snapped.

Sora sighed heavily. "I really had no choice."

"Yes you did. You know perfectly well that we can't stand each other for longer than ten seconds." Tai's response was huffy as he scowled at her.

Sora laughed inwardly as if this was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. _Even less than ten seconds_, she thought.

"Look...I promised Mom I would be good, so you better listen to her too if you care about her even the slightest," Sora admonished, giving him a sideways glare.

"I'm always nice to your mother. She's like a second mother to me now. But what I don't understand is how she got such an awful daughter like you."

"Very funny," Sora replied, mawkishly.

The two quickly got on the bus as it halted in front of them. When it went on its way again, Sora sat down at a window seat and glanced out. It was strangely calming to be back, despite the internal arguments she had with herself about not wanting to be back in Odaiba. Being here brought back not only the bad memories, but some good memories as well, such as her friends (which were, strangely, Tai's friends as well), some unforgettable moments she had with them, her old soccer team, picnics at the Odaiba Park...

Odaiba wasn't all about grief after all.

Sora looked to her left and saw Tai sitting quietly next to her, staring off into space.

He was thinking about something that seemed distant, or maybe even something that was confusing for him. She couldn't quite tell, but she always remembered that sometimes Tai wasn't always the smart-mouthed, egotistical boy he always portrayed himself to be. Sometimes he was quiet and thoughtful...even nice...

O

_"Hey Buttface, what're you doing sniffing the ground?" When she didn't respond, he his mocking expression became sullen. "What happened?" Tai asked as he knelt down to where Sora was lying in the pavement. She looked up at him with jumpy eyes._

_"Some stupid high school guy beat me up and took that watch Dad gave to me before he left! I promised him I wouldn't lose it!" Sora cried, grasping Tai around the waist as she cried into his chest. Tai tensed at first but relaxed as he began stroking her hair gently._

_"Don't worry Sora. I'll get it back for you," he whispered to her, calming her until the tears stopped falling._

O

Sora involuntarily began stroking the watch on her right wrist.

He really did get it back from that boy.

Once they reached Odaiba High School, Sora stopped at the entrance. This was the high school she was expected to go to if she was still living in Odaiba, or rather, the school she might be attending in the next few months if her dad ended up enjoying New York too much.

Back at Okayama, she went to a private high school that her father insisted she go to instead of "some high school". There she was treated like a little spoiled brat. Maybe it was good that she was here for a while...

"Hey Sora, you coming?" Tai called, standing at the front steps of the high school.

"Uh-yeah!" Sora quickly shuffled after him. The bell rang as she reached the top of the stairs, causing a herd of teens to form around her, rushing, chatting as they walked to class. For a second, she saw the back of Tai's messy hair, but in another split second, he disappeared, and the heads of other students blocked her view.

Sora jostled through the crowd but with a failed attempt. Where was Tai now? How was she going to find him in this herd of kids? An elbow jabbed her in the abdomen.

"Ow! Hey—wha-ouch!" Sora cried out, falling away from the crowd, only to crash into someone's chest on her way down. Arms surrounded her as a reaction to her fall.

"Hey! Careful there..." came a familiar voice.

Sora pulled away from the stranger and turned to face him.

"Oh! I'm sorry! There were just-" Her eyes met azure. "Matt..."

"Sora Takenouchi." The boy pronounced her name with such precision that she couldn't help but look up at him. "Long time no see. What are you doing here?" he asked, still a bit shocked to see her.

"My dad went on this three-month thing to New York so I'll be staying here for a while," Sora explained. At the corner of her eye she saw a glimpse of what looked like Tai's hair. She turned, but found it to be some girl.

"Oh, that's nice...hey...are you looking for someone? You seem distracted," Matt asked, giving her a wondering smile.

"Actually, I was supposed to be here with..." Sora began, her eyes darting once more.

"I bet whoever it is won't mind if you just went with me. The second bell's gonna ring soon anyway," Matt insisted, gently taking her by the arm.

"I'm not sure..." Sora began to protest, but stopped and thought about it for a second. It would be better to be with someone who was actually nice to her... "Oh all right," she agreed, allowing herself to be led away.

_Dammit...where did she go off to?_ Tai wondered, looking down the corridors, searching among the students for an auburn-haired teen. From what he knew, she was probably the only one with auburn hair that bright...

His eyes spotted the redhead. As he opened his mouth to call out to her, he stopped when his eyes traveled to the boy next to her.

Matt Ishida.

_Well isn't that lovely?_ Tai thought bitterly. In his 16 years of life, Tai realized that everything and everyone he ever cared about favored, maybe even preferred, the blond heart-throb over him...

Tai watched Sora as she laughed at something Matt said that was probably really amusing. Tai absolutely loved it when Sora laughed. But so far, the only way the words "Tai", "Sora", and "laugh" would ever be in the same sentence was if they were making fun of each other...using a third person perspective. And of course, to do that would be plainly, utterly, and painfully ridiculous.

For a moment Tai watched them talk, probably reminiscing about old times, before giving a sigh and heading to class.

O

O

O

A/N: Hoped you enjoyed!


	4. A Little Catching Up Time

A/N: Hey everyone! Here's the newly revamped Chapter Four! Again, the story is still the same, just made a few adjustments. =)

And remember, this is a TAI/SORA/MATT !

Spring Ranting

chapter four - A Little Catching Up Time

"Where were you?" Tai asked, grumpily, throwing his backpack down in front of Sora. Sora looked up at him from a puzzle she was working on as she sat on the sidewalk. She flashed him a gorgeous smile.

"Nice to see you too Handsome," Sora greeted cheekily.

"Shut up. It's after school, you have to go with me to soccer practice."

"Must I really? You know Matt invited me to watch his band practice tonight," Sora told him as she stood to follow him to practice.

Tai scoffed. "Fine. Whatever, just be home by 5pm. I'm responsible for you."

"You don't have to be responsible for me. I still remember a thing or two about Odaiba, ya know. I can find my way around this place. Besides, Mom just wanted you to keep me busy while she's working."

"All right. Have fun at Matt's band practice. Bye." He walked faster. Sora paused for a second. She sighed. Tai just doesn't get the hint.

"Tai! What's wrong with you? Can't we just be nice to each other? I really don't want to act like this with you anymore," Sora said. Tai looked back at her with a sullen look. Sora looked into his eyes. Is he...jealous?

He slowly walked back to her until their faces were about a foot away from each other. His chocolate eyes looked into her scarlet ones. For what seemed like an entire sixty seconds, they looked straight into each other's eyes in silence.

"All right," Tai agreed, breaking the intense silence. "What do you suggest?"

Tai broke the silence, but Sora broke the iron stare. She sighed and glanced up into the sky thoughtfully. "Hmm...I suggest we should try to be friends for the next week. If it doesn't work out, then for the rest of my stay, we'll just avoid each other. Is that all right with you?"

"Yeah, whatever."

"Then I'll go with you to your soccer practice," Sora said with her hands behind her back, looking up at him innocently.

"Whatever you want," Tai answered, walking ahead. Sora followed after him.

O

O

Once they reached the soccer field, all Sora could think of doing as she sat on the bleachers, was how she could possibly bring herself to interfere with their practice and practice alongside them. It was too bad it was an all-boys team instead of co-ed or else Sora knew she could destroy them.

As they played, Sora watched one of the boys who chronically twisted his foot to the right every time he kicked the ball. Her foot began tapping impatiently.

Then she just burst. "No, no! You don't kick it like that!" she scolded, making all the boys stop and stare at her as she trudged toward them, rolling her sleeves up.

"Excuse me, uh Miss, this is my team-" a timid little woman called out to her. Sora didn't turn. The little woman was offended, despite the fact that Sora could barely hear her whisper.

"You're twisting your foot when you kick it. You're not supposed to. Keep your foot straight and bend your knee when you kick it! Don't be stiff," Sora instructed. The boy looked at her fearfully and nodded as he attempted to follow what Sora told him. "Keep practicing that kick. And don't forget to bend okay?"

"Hey Takeno-" Tai began.

"And you! Don't kick the ball with your toes! What kind of soccer team is this, anyway? You guys need training, not just dawdling around playing practice games. HEY COACH! Train your team!" Sora shouted at the coach. The coach nodded softly and mumbled something Sora couldn't understand.

"Hey, why don't you coach if you think you're much better?" one of the guys said, mocking her.

She turned and shot him a murderous look. Tai chuckled in the back. "Why don't I? Then you'll see how hard it really is to be in a soccer team you lazy, donkey-faced, idiotic midget!" she spat.

The boy's eyes began to water, but he held it in. He retreated to the back, and as he did, looks of fear came from the other guys looking at Sora. Sora looked each and every one of them in the eye.

Everyone turned to where the coach was standing right in back of Sora. "Um, excuse me but these are my boys, sweetie. Do you think you might let me coach?"

"With all due respect, ma'am, these boys aren't being trained by doing practice games during every practice. They need to do running, kicking, passing, and blocking drills. They're under-trained and under-disciplined."

"Would you like to help me coach…um..."

"Sora."

"Sora! Oh yes. Sora Takenouchi... I was your kindergarten teacher!"

"Matsui-san! You look different..."

"Oh yes. Very different. I got myself some of that good old plastic surgery. It did wonders not only for my face and my self-confidence, but my sex life as well!"

"Ew..."

"Gross, Matsui-san."

Many of the boys made faces and looked as if they were going to vomit, others were nodding stupidly, probably imagining inappropriate things about their coach. Sora nodded slowly and awkwardly. "So anyways, about helping you coach, I would love to," she replied, looking over behind her at the boys who were gesturing Ms. Matsui not to allow Sora to coach. Sora's eyes shifted to them. She smirked. "Get in a line boys!"

O

O

It was a long quiet ride home on the bus. _Maybe being friends wasn't such a good idea_, Sora thought.

They couldn't seem to start a conversation because each was too shy to start a pleasant one. Every time they spoke, it began with an insult or an argument. They were so used to being mean and uncivilized toward each other that they couldn't start a nice, meaningful conversation as "friends."

"Practice was interesting," Tai finally said as they walked toward the house. The sound of the bus quickly disappeared into the darkening sky as the two teens entered the house.

Sora laughed. "Why didn't you ever say anything to Matsui-san? She's a nice, little lady, she's not gonna say no to you if you try to make your team better. 'Cause if you ask me, you guys suck," Sora whispered the last part.

"We do. Damn. I should've told Matsui-san about it. I don't know...I guess..."

"Don't tell me you were shy! Yagami, shy? Pah!"

"Don't tease. It's true...I might be comfortable messing with your brain, but I really am shy..."

Sora's crimson eyes watched the side of Tai's calm face as he entered the house through the lighted doorway. She wondered thoughtfully why he decided to let her in on such a personal secret. Usually guys his age would never let a girl they didn't like very much that they were shy. And she and Tai weren't exactly the best of friends.

"Kids time for dinner!" Mrs. Takenouchi shouted from the kitchen as if on cue.

Tai dropped his bag on the floor and followed Sora into the kitchen. He watched her bouncy auburn hair as she skipped to the table like a little girl. He smiled slightly.

Maybe it wasn't going to be that unbearable with her in the house...besides...this was sort of her house.

O

O

Tai picked up a soda can and took a slow sip. "On the weekend, me and my friends hang out at the skate park or sometimes at Izzy's hou-"

"My friends and I," Sora corrected as she chewed on the side of an almost finished chicken wing.

"What?"

"My friends and I, you said 'me and my friends,'" Sora repeated.

"So what?" he snapped defensively.

Sora smirked. She knew it would "unintentionally" piss him off. "You should really learn some grammar. It could be useful when you get a job."

"Hey Smartass, wanna listen for a second before you correct me again? And you're not even supposed to be talking with your mouth full. It's bad etiquette."

Sora glared at him as she chewed. He glared back. She glared. He glared. There was a lot of glaring.

"So are you going to go with me, or do you wanna go off on your own?"

Sora placed the chicken wing on the plate. "I don't want to hang out with your friends."

"Then you don't have to-"

Sora quickly interrupted him. "But I want to hang out with you. I haven't seen you in a couple years and we need to catch up on some things...like for example, are you allergic to anything new? Have you started working? Do you have a girlfriend?" Sora asked, leaning back into the couch.

Tai shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he sipped the soda on the table. "That's none of your business Takenouchi. Do you want me asking you questions like that?"

"Sure, I don't mind." Tai sighed. Sora continued, "I've had two boyfriends. One of them was this weird looking guy named Kentaro. He had these uneven lookin' eyes. Like, um, lazy eye or something. One of them seemed too close to his left ear and the other one looked too close to his nose...You have to see him-it's the funniest thing!" Sora laughed.

"Then why'd you go out with him?" Taichi asked curiously.

Sora stopped laughing and looked down at her hands. "Because he had a good heart. Okay so we were already friends. I met him on the first day of school and found out that his house was close to mine. Sometimes we would walk together until he had to turn on the cross street. So this one time these scary looking big guys followed me to my house and tried to steal my bag-which was my life-and he saved me."

"How?"

"Well...he threw his soccer ball at one of the guys' head and gave wedgies to the other two. Of course, we had to run after that...then we called the cops and the three were taken away."

Tai chuckled as he made himself more comfortable on the couch. "Oh really? That's...interesting..."

"Yeah, I know...I really don't care about looks but if I'm gonna marry a fairly unattractive guy, I can't have kids with him. I'd want attractive kids, but I would still love my husband," Sora replied. Tai gave her a "You're a freak" look.

"Takenouchi?"

"Hm?"

"You're a strange one."

Sora smiled. "Thank you."

"Anyways...so what happened with you two?"

"He dumped me because he said I was too crazy."

Tai laughed. "I wouldn't blame him! You're insane," he told her.

"Thanks a lot Yagami," she said sarcastically, throwing a pillow at him.

"No problem," Tai answered with a snicker. "So what about your other boyfriend?"

"Oh...my other boyfriend? He was great. Horribly attractive, nice, kind, crazy, smart..."

"But...?" Tai asked taking another sip from his drink.

"He was engaged." Tai spewed his soda and instinctively leaned forward to let it spill on the floor. Sora moved away from him on impulse. "Hey, you almost spat on my shirt!"

"He was engaged! Are you insane Sora?" Tai queried rhetorically.

"Hey I didn't know he was engaged, okay? He told me he was a college student and I assumed he wasn't so persistent on marrying at such a young age! He was only 20!"

"So what happened? You dumped him right?"

"Well, after he asked me to marry him so he could dump his fiancée, yeah, I dumped him!" Sora exclaimed. "Oh my goodness Yagami, clean up your spit!"

Tai simply gawked at her in awe. After all these years Sora continued to astonish him. She was so... odd it fascinated him.

"So what about you?" Sora asked.

"Me?"

"Relationships. Spit it out."

"I had a couple of girlfriends..."

"A couple?"

"I don't remember, okay? A lot of them weren't serious."

"Did you have sex with any of them?" Sora sneakily instigated.

"What? That's none of your busi-"

"You did!" Sora exclaimed, shifting in her seat, looking at him with a childish glint in her eye.

"Like I said, none. Of. Your. Business!" Tai insisted.

"Are you waiting for that special someone?"

"Shut up, I don't want to talk about it." Tai looked stubbornly away from her and sulked back into his seat.

"Gosh, you're such a guy," Sora mumbled.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Do I know any of them?" Sora continued to pursue the subject.

Tai looked at the ground. "I don't know."

"Mimi Tachikawa was one of them, huh?"

Tai looked back up at her with a look of intense wondering. How did she know these things? Was it a girl thing?

"I knew it!" Sora answered herself before Tai could speak. "That girl has dated everyone I know!"

Tai snickered softly as he watched Sora. Sora glanced back at him.

"What are you laughing at?"

"You."

Sora jumped him and proceeded to grasp his head in a headlock. Tai grabbed her arms and pulled her over his shoulder, causing her to fall off of the couch. Sora grabbed hold of him so that the two of them toppled clumsily to the floor. The two were breathless with laughter by time they stopped struggling with each other.

The two ceased their horse playing and looked at one another with the reminiscence of laughter still present on their faces.

"You know, you're not so bad Takenouchi," Tai commented, petting her head affectionately. Sora pulled away and flattened his mass of hair.

"You too, Yagami," she returned giving him a playful smile.

At least now they knew that they had the potential to be nice to each other, but there was something else...something else that seemed to change between them that day.

O

O

O

A/N: Chapter four! Woot! (I just did some editing on this sucker. Not much, but enough to make a difference:)


	5. Reliving a Vague Past

A/N: Hello again! Still continuing the reconstruction. Enjoy =)

Thank you for everyone who still reads and reviews this story!

Warning: Tai/Sora/Matt love triangle.

Spring Ranting

chapter five - Re-living a Vague Past

Later that night, Sora couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned in bed, until she finally laid flat on her back, staring mindlessly up at the ceiling. She didn't know why but she suddenly became very homesick...she missed her dad. He hadn't even called her in the last two days. He even forgot to give her a number to call him from. She shifted to her side and stared off at the dim door.

Maybe if she ate something she'd be able to fall asleep, no...it wasn't that either.

_It's not even hot...or cold...or uncomfortable... _Sora thought dismally. She shoved the blankets off of her and trudged off to the kitchen. It was black when she moved through the hallway so she felt her way through the darkness, touching the wall to feel for where she was going.

She didn't know how fast she was going, but by the time her forehead hit some sort of blockage, she swore loudly and unsuspectingly. "Shit-!" she cried before impulsively touching her forehead and kicking the door. When she kicked it, it creaked open, revealing a sleeping lump with an arm hanging out.

Sora rubbed her forehead again softly before looking up at the sleeping lump. She looked around the dimly lit room. She grinned viciously. It was Tai's room. She quietly entered and stood over his sleeping figure. Tai's mouth was hanging open and a drop of drool looked as if it was dying to cascade down his chin and onto his shoulder. She glanced around at the horrendously disheveled room, stepping over a sea of molding socks and filthy, used underwear. She cringed...people had described Tai's room as dirty before, but they didn't mention that it was practically un-livable. Once she reached his drawers, she began rummaging through his things, hoping that at least that was a little neat.

She frowned once she saw the dreaded inside of each drawer. Her eyes darted. _I swear, I saw something move_... she thought as she released the heap of unsanitary linens.

Inadvertently she turned back to the drawers and noticed that a crumpled piece of paper lay squished between cabinets. She pulled it out and found that it was addressed to her.

_Me?_ she wondered. The writing was definitely Tai's when he was in elementary school...man he had bad penmanship...and it really didn't change much over the years. She began focusing on the letter again, but it was difficult to read it with only the dim light that was streaming through slots in the blinds.

"What the fu-" Tai began as he sat up from his bed and rubbed his eyes. His eyes widened when he saw Sora's figure and immediately grabbed his baseball bat nearby. (No, he does not play baseball. Let's say it was a souvenir from a game he watched.) "Damn thief!"

"Tai! It's only me!" Sora shouted as she stepped back towards the door but ended up slipping on one of his shirts and flew head-first, straight into the ground, creating a very distinctive thud. "Ow..." she groaned, clutching the back of her head.

"Get up," Tai ordered with an aloof, almost snappy tone, Grabbing her wrist, he yanked her up with one forceful move. "What are you doing in my room Sora?"

Sora looked down at her hands and began fumbling with them, unsure of what to say. "Um...uhh...I got lost," she lied.

Tai scoffed. "You expect me to believe that!" he growled. Sora stepped back. Tai was kind of scary when he was angry.

"All right, I got curious! I'm just going to go back to bed," Sora said, pointing towards the door, giving him a feigned smile. He returned it brutishly before turning to head back to bed. He had a sudden notion and turned back only to find that Sora had something in her hand that looked like a crumpled piece of paper.

Tai suddenly began to panic and leaped out of bed, tackling Sora to the ground.

"Hey, Yagami, what do you think you're doing?" Sora screamed as she struggled to get away from him.

"That paper you're holding isn't yours!"

"Oh yeah? Then why is it addressed to me?"

Tai couldn't answer that question so he simply kept struggling against her to pull it from her iron grasp. She pulled, he pulled. She attacked him and captured him in a headlock, he pulled her right leg back, causing her to fall over, freeing him from her hold. Then Sora did something so uncalled for: she kicked him squarely in the shins and bolted out of the room, shutting the door in front of Tai's face as he got up to follow her.

He heard the door slam across the hall and grinned. An old friend had taught him the essentials of pick-pocketing and it came in handy that night. And what Tai did that evening was sort of like pick-pocketing, without the pockets. Tai sneakily replaced the old letter with a blank piece of paper he saw lying on his floor when he had the letter in his possession for that small amount of time. Sora had him in a headlock so she didn't see him throw the paper behind him and grab the nearest thing he could find. The old snatch and replace.

Once Sora was in her room, she looked at the piece of paper and saw that it was blank. She looked up, feeling defeated, and frowned… That Tai is pretty sneaky…

The next morning, Tai crawled out of bed and headed for the shower. Down the hall he noticed that the red head had already finished showering and even dressing. He stared at her curiously and wondered where she was going. And who was on the other line talking to her?

"Yeah sure…I'll be there, don't worry! Will I bring someone? Ha-ha…like he'd want to go with me…"

_Is she talking about me?_ Tai thought. Suddenly, Sora's eyes shifted towards him and she gave him a half-smile.

Tai turned away and headed towards the bathroom. _What was that all about?_ he thought as he stripped off his clothes and entered the shower.

Once he was finished, he walked out of the bathroom and passed Sora's room. He couldn't help but glance inside. From the small opening she left, Tai could see the back of her auburn hair, glistening from the light that flooded into her room.

If she had gotten a hold of that letter, he didn't know what he would have done…still, why would he care anyways? He had had a crush on her when they were 13, there was nothing to be ashamed of…besides she'd probably tease him for a day or two then get sick of it.

Suddenly, his thoughts drifted off to a completely different subject: his mother. Where in the world was she? His mom and Mrs. Takenouchi were supposedly already at work. But in the back of his mind, he wondered where his mother had been this whole time… In fact, he hadn't seen her since he picked Sora up from the airport. And if she went somewhere, why didn't she say anything, or call?

Sora came out of her room, surprising Tai out of his thoughts. He turned distractedly toward her. She looked back at him. There was an awkward silence.

"Hi," Sora greeted.

Tai nodded, acknowledging her.

_This is weird..._ Tai thought.

_I wonder where he put that letter..._ Sora thought simultaneously. She suddenly looked away, her face turning a bright pink after recalling that she had broken into Tai's room last night.

"I'm going out," she mumbled, heading down the stairs hurriedly before Tai could say anything to her.

O

O

"So your dad just dumped you here?"

"Yep...and he hasn't called me since," Sora told Matt despondently. "Maybe he forgot he had a daughter because he's having so much fun in New York."

Matt gave her a remorseful smile. "Look, he's probably just swamped with work. Don't get all worked up about it. I'm sure he's thinking of you," he assured her.

Sora sighed. Matt's calming words and soft azure eyes were such a relief from Tai's crudeness and their awkward silences. She was still upset that she didn't get a chance to grab that letter when she could've, but was embarrassed with the fact that Tai caught her red-handed. But right now, she didn't think of Tai at all and relished in finally being treated nicely by a very attractive, not to mention, very nice boy.

Matt was taking her to one of his favorite new restaurants close to Odaiba High School where he and his band got their first, professionally advertised gig. Since it was only a couple blocks away Sora offered to just walk, even though Matt insisted on taking his car. Eventually Sora talked him into simply walking so the two could have more time to talk.

Sora couldn't believe how much Odaiba had changed. There were six more restaurants, two housing developments, and plans for extending the island. And Matt...he hadn't really changed from elementary school, except he was a little more talkative than before. He was always the enigmatic musician with a laid-back air to him. He was the heartthrob, the cute but dangerous stranger, the male equivalent of a "bombshell." Yes, even in elementary school.

"So what have you been doing in Odaiba while I was gone?" Sora asked with a smile, nudging him softly.

Matt returned her smile. "Um...nothing interesting. Hanging out, playing music with the guys, school...just old crap. I think I'm gonna prune and rot in this damn city," Matt groaned.

"Hey, don't say that. I hear your band is getting pretty popular. I heard about you guys even in Okayama. Soon major record labels will be asking for you."

"Serious? I mean, you really heard about us in Okayama?" Matt asked, a little shocked that more people were listening to his band than he previously thought.

Sora nodded and chuckled good-humoredly. "Yes! You know, you should give your band a little more credit."

"I should...it's just unnerving, you know? We just started and you know how rock bands are...it's either you're totally broke or stinking rich...there's no in-betweens in the music industry. So just in case we don't make it, I've decided to be a dentist."

Sora nearly choked on her own saliva. "Dentist? Yamato Ishida...a dentist? No...I can't imagine-" she attempted to say while attempting to hold her laughter in.

"Hey! I'm very good with people-and teeth. I keep mine really clean, so how hard is it to keep someone else's clean?" He replied jokingly. "You can laugh all you want now Sora, but wait until I'm a rich and powerful dentist. You'll see. I'll be spreading tooth happiness throughout the nation."

Sora couldn't help but burst out laughing. "I'm sorry! It's just..." She took a deep breath before she suppressed more laughter. "I can't imagine you as a dentist. You don't seem like the office or clinic kind of guy. You look more like an artist, or a musician-something along the lines of entertainment."

Matt shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really know what I want right now. All I know is that I should have a back-up plan for all my back-ups."

"Hey, you can never have too many back-ups," Sora agreed.

Finally, the two reached the little restaurant. The exterior created an image of a quaint little place with a Greek-style plaza surrounded by pretty violet flowers and wind chimes. Today was the perfect morning for the wind chimes as they began dancing gracefully in the wind, creating rhythmic music as they blew. Then, once the teens entered through the mahogany doors, Sora was shocked to see that the scene completely changed.

Inside there were dim lights pointing in every direction. A soft mist surrounded the black tiled floors and up front was a little stage where a female performer was presently singing and strumming lightly on a guitar. The ceiling was ornately designed with a tornado of musical notes and speakers that were spread throughout. The more contemporarily designed interior was packed with the most eclectic group of people.

Sora watched as Matt greeted a few people with multi-colored hair and various piercings designing their bodies. Sora smiled timidly at each of them as Matt introduced her. Then she followed closely behind him as he brought them to a table near the front.

"Ooh, this is very cool. Complimentary water," Sora observed, taking a very long sip of the ice cold water.

"You look nervous," he commented, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Sora reddened at the warm contact and instantly thanked the lights for being so dim.

"Wonderful observation Mr. Ishida," Sora replied sarcastically. "I just don't know anyone here."

"Don't worry about that. They'll get to know you soon enough, hopefully," he said with a hopeful smile. Sora stared into his dark eyes that seemed to change shades each time a spot of light would hit it. Sora smiled back.

"Cool."

A boy suddenly approached them from behind Sora. He leaned down against the table and instantly began speaking to Matt. "Hey Matt, this girl is absolutely prodigious! Who knew she could belt out notes like that, eh?" the boy said, shifting his gaze giddily from the girl to Matt. Matt nodded.

"Yeah, she's awesome," Matt agreed. "Hey Iz, have you met Sora?"

The boy gaze shifted to Sora and smiled. "Hey! I remember you!"

"Izzy? As in, Koushiro Izumi?" Sora asked, standing to hug the boy. Izzy returned the hug.

"Yes! Sora Takenouchi! It has been quite a while since the last time we made contact," Izzy answered as he let her go. Sora sat back down while Izzy pulled up a seat.

"Yeah, she's been gone since..." Matt wracked his brain. "Damn... I don't even remember anymore."

"Four years," Sora stated with a thoughtful nod. "It's been four, very long years."

"I remember when we were about 12 or 13, Tai had this enormous crush on you," Izzy immediately recalled. Sora quirked a brow in his direction and scoffed.

"Oh really?" she inquired.

"Oh yeah. He would purposely be mean to you so that you'd pay attention to him and ignore all the other guys. I remember when that one guy...um...what's his name? Oh yes! Taro. Taro had this little thing for you but you paid no attention to him because you were busy trying to get your lunch back from Tai," Matt added with a sigh.

"I can't believe-Tai? As in Taichi Yagami? I thought he hated me because he bullied me all the time, but then again, I bullied him back."

"Nope. Tai was practically in love with you! He would ask me if you'd ever like him back and I told him by the way he was treating you, not in a million light centuries," Izzy continued, grabbing Matt's untouched complimentary water glass and taking a sip from it.

"You should've brought him. He would've gotten a kick out of this," Matt said, chuckling softly. "He always got me or Izzy or sometimes even TK involved. Of course he would do this thinking we had no idea about his feelings for you. He thought he was SOO amazing at keeping secrets."

_Interesting..._ Sora placed her elbow on the table and leaned forward, resting her chin on her palm. She never would have thought, in a million, gazillion years that Taichi Yagami would ever have an interest in her… Especially back in elementary school since she was always such a tomboy. _Taichi Yagami…was my secret admirer? Well, I would have never guessed._

"Tell me more."

O

O

O

O

A/N: Finished! Please read, and hopefully review! Thanks everyone!


	6. Soccer Balls and Affairs

A/N: Hey everyone! New chapter here! I hope you enjoy this one, I spent a whole lot of time on it, just for ya'll! Hehe, welps, thanks for reading and reviewing!

I recently learned that as authors we can't reply to our readers and reviewers on our story. That sucks! So I'm just going to thank all of you for reading, and hope that all your questions will be answered through my fic. Sorry everyone.

Also, you may notice that some of the words in my story are stuck together, that is NOT my doing. I think it has something to do with document loading setup thingy...but all my spaces have always been clear. Yeah...read on!

***The previous author's notes are from years ago, disregard! Here's a continuation of the revamp!

Static Room is fictional. If they have a Static Room in Odaiba, it was a coincidence that I named it that!

*Sunkus is a real convenience store just like other common Japanese convenience stores like Lawson Station, Famima (Family Mart), and Daily Yamazaki.

Also the non-fictional Odaiba Seaside Park, or "Odaiba Kaihin Koen" is some huge tourist park in Odaiba. I didn't know Odaiba was such a tourist spot until I got my lazy ass to find a website about it. Very interesting...

Spring Ranting

chapter six - Soccer Balls and Affairs

Tai walked out of his house, feeling slightly uncomfortable. He knew he shouldn't be dwelling on the feelings he had when he was evolving into a teenager. But he couldn't help but think about it...

_Where did Sora go anyway? What if she went with Matt to the Static Room_? Tai scratched the back of his head nervously, clutching the soccer ball under his right arm. Everyone went there...Izzy, Jyou, Matt, Mimi, Yolei (before she moved away), Michael-everyone! He couldn't even remember some of the names of the people who went there since there were so many. The worse thing of all was that they all knew about Tai's crush on Sora (Tai wasn't exactly the most discreet person)...will they all share what they knew with her?

Tai felt as if he was being childish_. It doesn't matter...it doesn't matter-__-_

"Tai!"

Tai turned quickly toward the voice and found a pretty, French, blond girl approaching him, holding a small shih tzu under her arm and four other dogs attached to leashes on the opposite arm. It just so happened to be his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Catherine.

"Cat-hey! You're up early," Tai greeted as he walked toward her.

"Yeah, I got a part-time job dog-walking," Catherine replied smiling at him shyly. "What are you doing up early?"

"Uh...I wanted to practice for our game this Saturday so I forced Davis out of bed and called Ken to go practice with me. We're meeting at Seaside Park."

"That's nice...so we're headed the same way!" Catherine replied, implying that they should walk together.

Tai cleared his throat and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck nervously as the two began walking side by side in the same direction. He couldn't just talk to her as if they were good friends. Catherine and Tai had a pretty extensive romantic past. It involved a lot of deception and lies. But strangely, the two seemed drawn together, no matter how much they hurt each other in the past.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered why Catherine never went back to France...and...he sometimes wondered if it was because of him.

"Um...Cat I-"

"Oh Taichi, you don't need to-" Catherine interjected, touching his shoulder lightly, for she knew exactly what he was going to talk to her about.

He put a hand up. "Oh, but I do. Look, whatever it is that's going on between us has to end now. I care about you Cat, and I think that by continuing this way we're only going to destroy whatever's left of this 'relationship' we have, whether it be friendship or-whatever..." Tai concluded.

Catherine nodded and pulled her hand away from his shoulder. "You're right...but...I still..."

Tai quirked a brow in her direction. "You still...?"

"I still have feelings for you that aren't just going to go away in one day. I mean...I know it will sound ridiculous of me to confide in you this way...especially since you're the one I have the feelings for, but...Tai, we had something...didn't we?" Catherine said, looking up to him with her glazed-over, sapphire eyes. Tai couldn't help but look into them, almost hypnotized by the deep pools of her eyes.

It seemed like an eternity before Tai breathed again, but once he did, he realized just how close their faces and bodies had become. Tai felt his eyelids begin to move over his eyes as Catherine's slender fingers caressed his cheek.

Catherine shivered when she felt Tai's bottom lip graze hers lightly. Despite the feather touch of their lips, it was like a shock through her body.

"I still love you," she found herself whispering against his mouth.

The words were heavy, but it took a while for Tai to react to them. But once they registered through his brain, his eyes shot open and he pulled away from her, turning his eyes the other direction, afraid to see what her eyes were saying.

_Kami-sama, I can't look at her, I can't, I can't..._ Tai told himself as he shook his head. _Why do you have to be so fucking stupid? Stupid, stupid, stupid idiot!_

"I'm sorry-I'm so sorry about that Catherine. That shouldn't have happened. I have to go," Tai muttered before stuffing his hands in pockets and speeding off in the other direction. He needed to get out of there before he took a glance at her. One thought ran through his mind: Forget the park, the Static Room it is.

Catherine watched him leave, devastated, and feeling overwhelmingly humiliated.

O

O

Once Tai reached the Static Room, he scanned the dimly lit room for Sora's bright auburn hair. It was easy to find for there were not many folks in Odaiba with natural red hair. He stalked up to the table where the redhead was sitting with a group of Tai's closest friends.

Yes, despite the facade Matt and Tai put up in which they seemed to hate one another, they were actually best friends. There was just this little jealousy problem that boiled between the two, building and building to the point of explosion...yet they always managed to lower that boiling point until it went away-at least for a little while. Sometimes they were more like bickering brothers than best friends.

"Hey," he greeted, standing right in front of Sora. The three occupants of the table looked up at him, the reminiscence of laughter still present on their lips.

"Hey Tai, we were just talking about y-" Sora began. She felt a kick from under the table.

"Ow!"

Tai quirked a brow. "Talking about what?"

"Uh...about lots of things..." Izzy began. He glanced at Matt. "Like...uh...the past...and other things."

Sora was confused. Then she saw the looks Izzy and Matt were giving her and she understood.

_Was I not supposed to know about these things?_ She wondered.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom really quick," she announced, quickly rising from her chair and walking away.

Tai slipped into her seat and rested his arms on the table. "Okay," he said. "What did you tell Takenouchi?"

Matt and Izzy looked down at the water glasses on the table and said nothing.

"Did you tell her-oh no-you ass holes didn't!" Tai couldn't believe their big mouths. They were supposed to be guys. Guys knew how to keep a secret...especially when they were never even really sure if it was true or not...okay maybe Tai wasn't as discreet as he thought, not telling his sister or mom, or even their fat cat. Still everyone had known about Tai's crush on Sora-everyone but Sora.

"Sorry..." Izzy apologized nervously.

"It just slipped out, Tai, we didn't mean to," Matt explained, giving him an anxious look.

Tai put his arms on the table and rested his head on them, groaning half-heartedly.

"Thanks...thanks so much for the absolute humiliation!" Tai shouted sarcastically.

"Hey, don't worry about it; it was all in the past. I don't think Sora's going to make such a big deal about it," Izzy assured him, patting his back.

Tai sighed then nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It was all in the past..."

O

O

"So...you had a crush on me, huh?" Sora asked later that day as she walked with Tai to the Odaiba Seaside Park.

Tai shot her a look of contempt before proceeding to kick his soccer ball around. Sora smiled innocently and followed him.

Great. "All in the past" just bit him right in the-

"I mean, it's all right if you did...I never noticed with the way you were treating me all those years...and to think, I actually believed that you were out to just bully those smaller than you," Sora continued.

Tai continued to walk stiffly ahead of her. "It was a long time ago, all right?"

"Yes, I know that...it's just fun to remind you of it," Sora replied. "So...how about now?"

Tai looked up at her, curiously. "What do you mean, 'how about now'?"

"I mean, what are you feelings toward me now?"

Tai paused, slapping a foot on the soccer ball. "Well...right now, I think you are being painfully annoying asking all these questions."

Sora bristled. "Hm." She kicked the soccer ball from under his foot and ran past the falling Tai, controlling the ball between her feet. She was gaining speed when Tai finally realized what she had done.

"HEY!" he shouted, running after her. He stopped when she pulled a leg back and kicked it toward the goal across the park. Tai, as well as everyone else present at the scene, watched the ball shoot straight inside.

People standing around the park stared at the ball then at Sora who was smirking victoriously at Tai.

"You expect me to go over there and get it back?" Tai growled as he stalked toward the smirking girl.

"Yes! You called me annoying! I think you are the one being annoying. Why can't you loosen up? I'm trying my best to be nice here! Look, I don't know if you really had a crush on me back then, or if Izzy and Matt were just making that stuff up to entertain me, or to play a prank on you, but if you did...why didn't you just tell me?" Sora asked, her eyes looking up at his sincerely.

Tai looked up at the trees past her head. "You know how I was back then...I'm not the kind of guy who talks about feelings and all that junk. I'm not that good with words."

Sora chuckled. "It would have helped if you paid attention during Literature class."

"Yeah, I know..." Tai drifted off, smiling affectionately at Sora while she returned the smile.

Tai suddenly felt compelled to look past Sora's head to where his soccer ball was kicked. He squinted when he found a young boy who looked about nine or ten moving toward his soccer ball.

His eyes widened when he finally comprehended what the boy was about to do.

Sora furrowed her brow at him when he stopped speaking and followed his gaze toward the little boy.

The two watched at the little boy stuck his tongue out at them and ran off with Tai's practically new soccer ball.

"HEY COME BACK!" Sora and Tai screamed simultaneously as they stumbled forward to chase after the kid.

O

O

It took the two of them a while, but they eventually caught the little boy. Unfortunately, the boy began crying once Sora got a hold of him and Tai attempted to grab the soccer ball from his small arms. He screamed, causing a large scene which eventually led to the boy's mother hearing her son's familiar voice.

There was arguing and eventual hitting and throwing, but Sora and Tai got away...without the soccer ball. The little boy even managed to stick his cruel tongue out at them and make a face before giving his mother the "cute puppy eyes" that always used to work when Tai was a little.

"Great, thanks a lot Ms. Show-off," Tai growled as they sat on the sidewalk, wondering what to do next. "Now I'm without a soccer ball. How am I going to practice for your new routines now?"

"I said I was sorry, don't need to rub it in my face," Sora mumbled back, feeling horrible not only from losing the ball but also from the bruise that stupid boy's mother gave her on her left arm. "Gosh that woman has an arm on her..."

"At least she didn't try to crack your skull with her 200 ton luggage called a purse," Tai groaned, touching the large lump beneath his mass of hair.

Sora gave him a half-hearted look before shifting her position. "Here, let me have a look at it."

"No, it's fine," Tai said, moving away from her. She was in front of him, leaning toward Tai, to his discomfort. He couldn't help but gaze up at her amber eyes, noting the feeling he got just by looking at her. He shook her off when she tried to touch him.

"Just let me see if there's anything I can do with it," Sora replied as calmly as she could. Tai was being stubborn again. She reached up again to touch his head.

"Stop, it's fine-"

"Will you stop struggling; it's not going to make things better!"

"Well there's nothing you can do-"

"Yes there is-"

"No, just quit touching me-"

"TAI!" Sora snapped. The tone in her voice made Tai stop. He slunk down against the cement pavement and remained quiet as she fumbled through his thick, brown tresses. "Do you ever brush your hair?" she found herself inquiring.

Tai mumbled something, but Sora couldn't hear him. She assumed it was some profane insult toward her so she simply ignored it, continuing to flatten the hair around until she finally reached the bump. The thing had swelled up and was beginning to turn a good shade of dark, purple-ish blue. She whistled. It was big all right.

"We need to find some ointment for that before it gets infected," Sora said, pulling Tai off his feet and grabbing his hand. Tai froze and looked down at their connected hands...Was Sora really holding his hand? Tai looked up at her, still dumbstruck how unmindful she was of the fact that she was holding his hand. "Do you have some at the house, or should we go to a convenience store?"

Tai said nothing, still focusing on their hands as Sora tugged on him. "Um...Sora-"

"Well, do you or don't you?" Sora asked, looking over at his frozen face. He slowly looked up at her expecting face.

Tai cleared his throat. "Um, I don't think we do."

"Then we have to go find a Sunkus* or something," Sora said, continuing to hold his hand unknowingly.

The two finally found the long awaited convenience store. To Tai's dismay, Sora still didn't realize that she was holding his hand as they entered the store. She dragged him all the way to the medicine aisle and finally released her hold on him, without ever realizing what she had done.

Tai's breath had been stuck in his throat the entire time, and only found himself short of breath when Sora released him. He relaxed as she concentrated on finding the right ointment for his bump. He smiled, thinking how cute she was, being so insistent on treating him.

She beamed up at him when she found it. "Here! I think this will do," she said.

Tai scratched the back of his head and grinned nervously. He wasn't used to thanking people, but Sora looked so intent on aiding him. "Thanks," he said.

Sora smiled back. "You don't have to thank me, if it strains you so much," Sora said, elbowing him playfully as she grabbed a small snack for herself and paid for it, along with the ointment, at the cash register.

Tai couldn't help but swallow with much difficulty. Were his feelings for her really gone? He had begun to think that those feelings he had for Sora back then were just a stupid, kiddy crush...but maybe it was more since they didn't seem to go away so easily...

Unbeknownst to Tai, Sora had been glancing at him when she knew he wasn't looking at her. She knew that she had been holding his hand, but couldn't show him that she knew. She wasn't even thinking when she grabbed his hand! It was all on impulse!

_It's a good thing he didn't notice..._ she thought, blushing as she turned to face the older man at the register. If only she knew just how much he noticed...

Tai felt the rush of cool air come in from the door and turned absentmindedly to see who it was.

Sora did the same and was surprised to see who it was.

The woman at the door paused when she saw the two teenagers staring back at her. She had a panicked look on her face when a man came up from behind her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

That man...

Sora felt her hands tighten into two balled fists as she stared at the man who, she believed, destroyed, annihilated, and completely ruined what frail relationship she had with her mother those many years ago.

When she walked up to her room that day she arrived at Odaiba, she actually had a small tinge of hope that she'd actually be able to make up with her mother and forgive her for what she had done. For a second her mother made her believe that they could actually have a real mother and daughter relationship.

_I can't believe her_... Sora thought, as she stared at the two, being abusively bombarded with memories she'd rather not remember.

"Sora, I..." her mother began, taking a step toward her.

Sora shook her head violently and immediately grabbed the items at the register, her eyes averted as she sped out of the convenience store without turning back. Tai shrugged at the desperate expression Mrs. Takenouchi was giving him and hurriedly ran after Sora.

"Sora! Sora, stop running!" Tai called after her, hooking a hand on her shoulder to stop her. He grabbed her arms and turned her around to find glassy amber eyes gazing back into his chocolate ones. She looked so strained trying to keep her tears in.

"I-I just didn't want to be in there...not with him! Not with that dumb, ugly, disgusting fool putting his hands all over my even dumber mom!" Sora yelled, yanking her body away from Tai and trudging off to avoid letting him see her tears.

Tai stood still at the sidewalk, watching her for a second before rushing after her once more.

He didn't know a lot about Sora's past and why she'd left Odaiba so many years ago, but he did know that it wasn't because of something peaceful or silly...there was something much deeper, much more deceptive-like something out of a soap opera...

"Look, whatever it is, I'm sure your mother has a good explanation for it," Tai attempted to comfort her. He was always bad at comforting people, but he felt so bad seeing her like this.

"She'll never have a good explanation for it. She tried before but they were all worse than the one before... You know Tai, nothing's really changed in Odaiba. Everything still sucks," Sora whispered as she sniffed, her back facing Tai.

The statement stung Tai. So maybe whatever it was that was going on between her and her mother hadn't changed...but not all of Odaiba sucked. There were a lot of things that were good in this small island of theirs.

He hoped Sora could see past her family problems and look at the good things too...

He sighed as he took the sullen girl into an unsuspecting hug. Sora stiffened at first, but then buried her head in his chest, realizing that at the moment, nothing felt more right than standing there, being held by Tai Yagami.

o

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o

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Next chapter: chapter seven – Matt's Turn


	7. Matt's Turn

A/N: WaPASH!

Warning: Tai/Sora/Matt triangle. Be warned!

Spring Ranting

chapter seven - Matt's Turn

A terrible depression was looming over Sora's usually amused features as she sat slouched on the roof over her room, watching the sun settle comfortably in the valley between the mountains far ahead of her in a feathery distant fog. She gave a heavy sigh, reminiscing on that afternoon's events. The bad memories of her deceptive, hurtful past came back like a viscous allergy flowing with annoying and deliberate indolence. And to her unfortunate dismay, it continued to play over and over in her mind like a nightmare.

Her slender arm lounged lazily on the protruding bricks on the roof where she sat, her fingers tapping anxiously, but only for the sake of anxiety. She just wished she hadn't seen her mother and that stupid bastard that day because once the image of the two holding each other registered through her brain, her entire day suddenly became bleak and sour-like 20 year old milk left in the fridge to rot. Yum.

Not even losing Tai's special soccer ball to that bratty kid, or getting slapped around by that kid's mother was anything too bad. In fact she rather enjoyed her day until those two stepped foot in that convenient store. That minute just ruined everything…

Then the humiliating recollection of clawing at Tai for comfort made her want to slam her head on the wall of her bedroom. Well she wasn't clawing-and being comforted by someone wasn't anything bad-it was just the fact that she and Tai had this unspoken understanding that despite their agreement to be friends, they still had to keep some sort of image up when they were around each other. She was embarrassed that Tai had seen her moping and crying like a baby over her damn mother.

_He probably thinks I'm pathetic_…Sora thought dimly, fondling with the tips of her auburn tresses.

Still…somewhere in the back of her subconscious, it felt nice being held by him. She recalled standing there numbly, clutching that gray sweater he had on with her two small fists, feeling the warmth of his body against hers as he brushed away strands of stray hair that stuck onto her flushed cheek. He was whispering things to comfort her-she couldn't remember what-but at that particular moment she just felt safe.

No more mom. No more past. No more worries.

_Tai…_she thought with another heavy sigh.

The sun had finally dwindled down with only a petal of highlighted brightness peaking between the mountains. Sora watched as a pregnant woman walked out to her backyard holding a basket under an arm to take down the clothes hanging on her line. Sora closed her eyes.

"Hey Onee-chan, what are you doing out here?" called a soft voice from one of the windows.

Sora turned to the voice and smiled half-heartedly. "I was considering whether I should jump on that old guy walking across the street, or just go cow-tipping at the farmhouse by Sukiyama's Bar."

"Whatever excites you Onee-chan," Kari giggled. She climbed out of the window and sat next to the older girl, looking straight ahead to where the sun had once been. There was a calm silence between the two girls as the evening wind drew invisible fingers through their hair. Kari closed her eyes.

"I was just thinking about my mom," Sora whispered, finally breaking the silence.

Kari nodded. "I figured."

Sora gaped at her with wide eyes. "What do-Do you know?"

"Yes. Of course I know! I've been living here in this house for years now! And you know I can be nosy when I want to be," she answered.

Sora gave the younger girl a soft smile and a little nudge. "Yeah, you always were a sneaky little brat."

"But I think you should ask her what really happened before being so harsh on her," Kari replied, looking up into Sora's ruby eyes genuinely.

Sora looked down at her lap. Maybe there was some sort of explanation for all this lying, fighting, cheating and unadulterated behavior. She just never gave her mother time to explain because she was always running away…

"Kari! Sora! Dinner's been ready for almost half an hour! Where the hell are you two?" Tai shouted through the hall.

Kari and Sora looked at one another and chuckled. "Coming!" they chimed, rushing off to the window.

"""

Dinner was silent that evening. Tai and Kari's mother finally showed up after a few days of being suspiciously absent. Her excuse was that she had just been leaving early and coming home late for a couple days because of work. But Tai and Kari knew there was more to her story than just "leaving early and coming late." Besides that, Sora had decided to take dinner to her room so Mrs. Takenouchi was being unnaturally snappy toward everyone.

Even breakfast was easily avoidable. Her mother was not the type to barge into rooms demanding the presence of the person she was looking for. Instead she would mope around, snapping at everyone and everything that got in her way.

Sora's schedule for the first couple of days flew by quickly. Sunday: woke up, showered, brushed teeth, stole a package of Pop-tarts from the cupboard, sped off to the train station to head to downtown Tokyo for the day.

Monday: woke up early, went to school with Kari just to avoid mother, hung around with some old friends around the city then came home late.

Today was Tuesday and Mrs. Takenouchi was disappointed to find that her daughter missed breakfast YET again. Everyone tried to avoid her as best they could that week because the more Sora missed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the angrier and grumpier the woman got. (And unfortunately, this is where Sora got her temper from.)

Earlier that morning…

"Where are you headed off so early in the morning?" Tai's loud, teasing voice nearly echoed through the house, surprising Sora from her initially successful, silent tying of the shoe at the dinner table.

Sora looked up with a glint in her eye as she finished lacing the shoe, stood up, and snatched her bag from the table.

"You're not here to lecture me about how I have to talk to my mom, are you? Because I don't have time for this bull-" Sora began.

Tai held his hands up in defense. "Whoa, whoa Sora, my dear child, we mustn't be so aggressive!" he teased.

"Well then I'm going somewhere that isn't important to you or my mother," she replied, walking passed Tai toward the door.

"I'm not your mom's spy if that's what you think," Tai responded, his expression becoming serious. Sora turned to him, noting this change in his voice. She decided to give him a chance to speak. "I…just thought I'd tell you to be careful and come back before it gets too dark because there are a lot of psychos out there and, you know, they can do things…" he trailed off.

Sora looked at him with glimmering eyes and an amused smile. "Is Taichi worried about little old me?"

Tai scoffed. "Pfft…hell no." He began walking back upstairs. "It's just that those parents put me in charge of you and I don't want to get blamed if 'little old you' gets eaten or something. See ya."

Sora's face curled with an indignant expression. "Ass…" she muttered before shutting the door tightly behind her. She grabbed her bike by the side of the house and headed straight to Seaside Park.

She passed the trees and their shapeless silhouettes in silent awe as a deep strawberry color painted the morning sky. She felt like such an introvert, craving alone time all the time. Odaiba had always made her feel like being alone because the island was just filled with drama and past and present frustration. The only way she believed she could get away from it was if she went somewhere to be alone. She gave a helpless sigh and found a bench, resting her bike next to it as she stretched her body across the bench, staring up at the sky.

"Taking a nap so early in the morning?"

Sora bolted up and found a pair of azure eyes staring down at where she was sitting. He had an amused smirk on his face as he tightened his grip on the backpack slung lazily over his right shoulder. His hair was slightly disheveled, as if he'd woken up that way. She never realized how attractive he had become. Well…back in junior high school he was still a cute kid, but she never imagined he'd be so beautiful-yes, beautiful-at this age. As she discreetly examined him, she thought about all the girls who probably threw themselves at him in anxious desperation, hoping that one of them would get chosen by the mystical unicorn of a blond boy.

Unbeknownst to Sora, Matt had never actually had an actual girlfriend-and by actual, he really did have several, but none of them were genuinely looking for a relationship with him. His relationship past was actually deeply depressing because of the mistreatment he received from his so-called "girlfriends". He just wished there was one girl out there who wasn't all about looks and popularity.

"No. I'm just admiring the scenery," she replied matter-of-factly. She furrowed a brow. "Aren't you supposed to be heading off to school right now Mr. Ishida?" she inquired suspiciously.

Matt continued to hold his smirk as he slouched down next to her. "I had the sudden urge to ditch. What's one lost school day?"

"Oh…I don't know…let's take a wild guess—detention, lecturing from teachers, grounding from parents, and possible spanking for bad behavior?" Sora replied rhetorically.

"Well, that'd be my problem then, wouldn't it?"

"Why are you ditching anyway?"

"You really wanna know?" Matt asked. Sora nodded slowly. He sighed. "Okay…well I had a fight with my mom. We're not speaking to each other right now and I didn't think I could face people at school…somehow, despite my attempts, people can still tell if I'm depressed," Matt confided.

Sora smiled sullenly. "So you know what I'm going through. I'm fighting with my mom too. But I have no school so I can be here," she said, giving him a pseudo-accusing look.

Matt laughed. "Hey let's just keep that between us okay? I was never here."

"So where were you headed?" Sora asked curiously.

"Just around."

"What do you mean, 'just around'?"

"I don't know. I'm just going to walk idly around town until I find something that interests me."

"So you're really ditching school?"

"Yes. You know, you ask a lot of questions," Matt told her.

"I'm just curious," Sora replied with a shrug. "Does it make you uncomfortable?" she teased, scooting closer to him.

Matt gave a short chuckle. "You wish," he returned. Then he turned to her, his smiling blue pools staring into her scarlet ones. "So do you want to come with me?" he asked her.

"To where?" Sora asked with an arched brow.

"Let's drive to Kyoto."

"Are you nuts?" Actually, it sounded extremely tempting. Sora looked at Matt's serious face. Did he really want to go there? It was so far for just a one-day adventure. (A/N: From what I heard, and not from actual research, Kyoto from Tokyo is equivalent to San Francisco to L.A.; something like a six to seven hour drive.)

"Okay, okay, we'll take the bullet train. Just pick something!" Matt replied, doubtlessly assuring Sora that Matt was serious about going.

She smiled and stood up, causing Matt to follow suit. "Let's take the train then!"

""""

Sora's heart skipped a beat as she stepped onto the train. Matt was behind her and suddenly crashed into her when she stopped half-way inside.

"This doesn't seem right," she said, giving Matt a skeptical look. Matt put a comforting arm around her as he pulled her into the train.

"Don't worry. It's just for today. We'll go back before we get into any real trouble," he reassured her.

She didn't want to leave Matt to go off all alone, so she sighed and nodded as she allowed the enthusiastic blond to lead her to a seat near the window. People were rushing around the train, hurrying off to seats, talking on their cell phones, and tapping at laptops. Sora was a bit nervous but she knew Matt wouldn't drag her to do anything that would physically harm her. She smiled and sank into the comfortable seat.

"This isn't bad…" Sora commented as she felt the train stir and proceed forward. This would be a good trip. No one to pester her about her mother.

Speaking of parents…

She wondered why her dad still hadn't called her.

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Matt had fallen asleep during the trip with his head against the window, his hair sweeping backward as his head fell forward. Sora watched him with an amused smirk, wondering what she could possibly do to him that would cure the boredom in her. She moved closer to his sleeping face, and lifted her fingers to his nose, pinching his nostrils so that he couldn't breathe.

She suppressed a giggle when his lips parted, his warm breath escaping his mouth this time. Sora, being the bored person she was, grabbed his lips and pinched them together too, causing a strange grunting sound to come from the back of Matt's throat. It was like the distinct sound of a dying lamb.

When she felt him stir, she quickly pulled back and shut her eyes, pretending to be asleep as Matt awoke, shaking his head in disconcertment. He softly mumbled something incoherent and took a glance at his surroundings. Sora snuck a peek behind her lashes as the slightly confused Matt slowly reverted back to his sleeping position.

She smiled. Playing with the comatose was fun…

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Matt was dealing with an inner turmoil.

He didn't know whether to scoot away from Sora's ever-sleeping head and let it fall against the seat, or wait until they reached the train stop and wake her up. He had begun to feel slightly uncomfortable with their current position when an elderly lady had passed by and smiled at them.

"Is that your girlfriend? She's very pretty," the gray-haired woman commented, gesturing toward Sora's sleeping form.

"Oh no…she's just a-a friend," he said, giving a nervous laugh.

"What a waste," the woman said, walking off toward the back of the train before Matt could respond to her. He watched with a tilted head as the woman scurried off and took a seat in the next car.

There was definitely nothing wrong with Sora. She was pretty, as the woman said, and it wasn't just that. She was funny, witty, smart…different than all the other girls at school who seemed to suck up to him for no reason at all. He just wanted those other girls to be themselves and talk with him like he was an actual person, not stare at him as if there was nothing else interesting about him but his looks. With Sora…she seemed to ignore his looks all together and chatted on and on about mindless and mindful things, making him feel like a person again. He adored talking to her, and he knew she wasn't using him for popularity purposes. Sora was Sora. And that was what was so attractive about her. If Sora was his girlfriend, he would never let her go because he knew she was definitely not like the rest of the girls he's met before. He looked down at her red hair spread across his shoulder, tingling the side of his neck.

_Tai should've made a move when he had the chance_, he thought. _It certainly is a waste…for Tai._

He sighed and returned to dealing with his inner turmoil. But before he could make a decision, he realized the next stop was where they got off. He had no choice but to call her attention.

"Sora…wake up. We're in Kyoto," Matt whispered awkwardly to the sleeping girl. Sora's lashes fluttered as she raised her head from his shoulder, unaware that she had been laying against him for the better part of the hour. She jolted up and flushed when she realized what she had done.

"Sorry…" she apologized, dusting his shoulder of some invisible Sora-dirt. "I didn't mean to sleep on you like that."

Matt cleared his throat. "No problem. No problem at all." The train finally came to a complete stop. There was a pause before a small "ding!" was heard, and the doors slid open. "Let's go."

Matt quickly got up and headed to the open door with a still-dazed Sora following behind him. It had been a quick ride, but also somewhat awkward… Sora shook her head. These uncomfortable moments seemed to happen with a lot of people she encountered ever since she got back to Odaiba…

"I remember coming here a couple years ago and it was so awesome. They had these musicians that played in the streets that were actually playing good music instead of that crap you hear so often on the radio," Matt told her as they exited the train station.

"I bet you played with them," Sora said, nudging Matt gently.

Matt smiled. "Once. I got to play with this one band. It was so great! And the cool part was that after they finished playing, the lead vocalist told me he was a dentist."

Sora laughed. "Are you serious?"

"I swear, I'm not even making this up! He told me that when he wasn't playing instruments and jamming with his band, he was in some office cleaning teeth. He said it wasn't a bad living. He could support himself and his love of music with a good steady job."

Sora gave him a knowing look. "Hmm. I'm guessing that's why you decided to be a dentist?" she inquired.

"Yes! Exactly."

"Where are we going exactly?"

"We're gonna meet up with an old friend of mine…and yours. I think you remember him. He used to live in Odaiba but moved here to some Shinto shrine with his uncle because of some…girl issues."

Sora laughed. "Oh, really? All because of a girl?"

"Well…um, it's Davis Motomiya's sister Jun. She was crazy about him…so crazy that she took to stalking him and watching him shower with a hidden camera. They were together for a while because Jyou thought she was interesting, but after a while she became way too obsessive. His family filed a restraining order against her. She followed it for a while but then she just planted hacking devices on his computer and hidden cameras in his house," Matt explained. "I mean, it was kind of his fault. He didn't pay attention to any of the warning signs."

Sora was in shock. Jyou had a stalker? She never would have believed it… "Wow."

"Exactly what I said when I first heard it. Can you believe? Jyou had a stalker? I never would have believed it…" Matt began mumbling to himself, shaking his head all the while as they walked over to a bus station. "Anyway, he lives at this shrine now. He started a rock band and he's taking these exams to become a general practitioner."

"Doctor Jyou? In a band?"

Now this was becoming unbelievable.

"What else changed about that guy?"

What Matt said next made it extremely difficult to believe they were visiting their old friend Jyou. "He has a red mohawk."

_Maybe he's bipolar_, Sora thought, giving Matt the most confused look she could muster.

The bus eventually came after half an hour. The two were so engrossed in their conversation that the bus almost left, but luckily Sora realized it and the two chased the bus to the stop sign and got inside. Once they reached their stop, they hopped off and went up the winding dirt steps to Jyou's shrine home. Sora looked around and found two small children chasing one another near a statue of a god. Three bald, elderly men were sitting by the steps of a workshop near the house, chatting and smoking. Matt politely greeted them with Sora following his gestures, and then they headed up to the house where Matt lightly tapped the door.

"Jyou? Open up! It's Matt," Matt called through the door.

"Hold onnn! Let me tie my shoe!" came a muffled voice from inside. The voice opened the door, and out came a very unfamiliar young man with a doctor's lab coat on. His hair was red…

_Oh my…_ Sora thought, staring in awe at the once raven-haired boy.

Jyou smiled at Sora with an unfamiliar look in his eyes. Apparently, he didn't recognize her. "And who's this super hottie with a body that you brought with you today Yama?" he asked with a smile. Sora chuckled at this.

"I'm Sora. Sora Takenouchi. Remember me, Jyou?" she greeted him, grabbing his hand and shaking it viscously.

"Sora…oh! Sora Tak—Taichi's—" he began but instantly shut his mouth when he saw the look on Matt's face. Jyou cleared his throat when Sora gave him an odd look. "Um…of course I remember you! It's nice to see you again!"

"And it's…interesting…to see how much you've changed over these past few years. Nice mohawk," Sora commented.

Jyou gave her a beaming smile. "Come in, come in…oh…um…there's someone else in the living room. I don't know why all of you are ditching school. Cuz you guys know about the importance of education, but—" He shook his head as he led the two into the living room. "What am I saying? You won't listen to me. But yes…anyways, I have to just feed the dog and the kids really quick then I'll come back for you guys," he continued as he disappeared out the door.

Matt and Sora glanced at each other and shrugged. As they turned toward the living room, they found an extremely familiar boy sitting on the couch, laughing his ass off at something on the T.V. screen, eating peanuts. The boy stopped and looked up at Matt and Sora with blank eyes and lingering laughter on his face.

"TAI!" Matt and Sora shouted simultaneously.

Tai's surprised look transformed into a lingering smile as he chewed the last peanuts in his mouth. "Hey guys…uh…what are you doing here?"

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A/N: Not too many changes =) See you on the next chapter!


	8. A Foolish Day in the Life of Jyou

A/N: By this time I've been just tweaking a couple things about the story. Mostly I am just fixing grammatical and spelling errors. There are probably a few I missed so...too bad for me. Enjoy guys!

Spring Ranting

chapter eight - A Foolish Day in the Life of Jyou

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It was like a sign from the devil.

Sora couldn't help but feel her left eye twitch with indignation. She breathed in deeply as she glared down at the teenage boy sitting comfortably and ignorantly on Jyou Kido's couch, staring up at her with expectant eyes. Watching her. Just watching her like those porcelain dolls with the beady eyes. His beady eyes seemed to mock her, laughing in her face like miniature, porcelain hyenas.

He was still waiting for her to respond to his question. I shouldn't be jumping to conclusions. _He might just be here to visit Jyou_, Sora thought, heaving a forced sigh.

Unfortunately for the naive Taichi, simply being there sparked a disturbing, latent fury in the redhead unmatched by anything he'd ever seen before...

Then, without another word, Sora lunged forward and attacked Tai into the couch, surprising and terrifying both the innocent Tai and the clueless Matt. "I hate you Taichi Yagami! Why can't you just leave me alone? Why do you have to be here? Why are you following me? Why were you born? Your parents never should have had sex!" Sora screamed at the top of her lungs, her small hands locked around his neck, slamming his head back and forth into the cushions.

"AHH-ACK! Aggakkkk!" Tai gurgled, his eyes watering while attempting to pull the deranged redhead off of him. Matt held his lips together, his face distorted as he tried in vain to keep himself from laughing at the scene before him. He really did want to help his best friend...really...it's just...Sora was too strong, and at times, unabashedly scary. Okay, so that really wasn't the reason why he didn't help Tai. It was all just a little too funny for him.

Finally, Matt's transfixed gaze ceased and he managed to pull the startlingly powerful Sora off of Tai who keeled over coughing and gasping for breath, holding his head between his legs in agony.

"Tai...are you okay?" Matt asked, still keeping Sora at a distance from Tai. The red-faced girl struggled in his clutch and finally yanked herself away from him, folding her arms and glaring down at Tai.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine," Tai said nonchalantly as he sat up. Matt nodded in acknowledgement. Then Tai continued, growling, his eyes sending death daggers in Sora's direction. "JUST LET ME TAKE A MOMENT TO LET THE BLOOD CIRCULATE BACK INTO MY BRAIN!"

"You deserved it!" Sora screamed.

"What did I do? I'm so sorry I ate the peanuts, I didn't know you'd SUFFOCATE a human being for them!" Tai apologized sarcastically, grabbing a handful of peanuts from a bowl and viciously chucking them at her. A few of the nuts flew to her face while others cascaded down her shirt.

"UGH! Why did you follow me, you moron?" she returned, shoving Matt's arms away from her when he thought she would attack Tai again, all the while, shaking the peanuts from her shirt.

"Excuse me, Queen of Paranoia, but the damn world doesn't revolve around you! You're not so special to me that I would travel all the way to Kyoto to stalk you, I'm not that desperate!" he shouted, feeling an agitated vein ready to pop in his neck. He couldn't believe this girl!

This instantly made Sora quiet. With a prominent "Hmph!" she stalked out of the room heavily just as Jyou returned from feeding the children and the pets. He had a clueless look in his eyes as he watched Sora push past him and march out of the house. Tai on the other hand, punched the wall before shaking the ground with his footsteps as he exited the living room and went down the hall to one of the guest bedrooms. Jyou arched a brow and glanced at Matt.

"Did I miss something here?" he asked. Matt sighed tiredly and shook his head.

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"I really can't believe the two of you ditched and none of you had a clue that you all ditched...I can't believe you ditched!" Jyou scolded Tai, whacking the poor boy at the back of his head. Tai groaned and rubbed the back of his head wordlessly. The two of them glanced up at the darkening sky from their seat at the foot of the steps, wondering what the four of them were going to do now.

"I know...but I had to get away from Odaiba for a while...Man, that Sora really has a temper..." he muttered, his hand slowly moving down to rub the red, hand-shaped bruises she created around his neck. He couldn't understand why she thought he was following her. It was true that he wanted her to be safe because if Mrs. Takenouchi or his mom ever found out that she fled to Kyoto without telling them, they would have torn him up worse than Sora did. But the thing was, Tai really did want her to be safe.

"That's the same excuse those two gave me. But, just tell me this: Why?" Jyou asked, his red mohawk moving gracefully in the calm wind. Tai's mind drifted off for a moment to Jyou's mohawk. He gaped hypnotically at the artificial coloring of Jyou's once, dark midnight blue hair. He never really knew why Jyou decided on this drastic hairdo. He was always Mr. Practical or Mr. Predictable or Mr. Reliable. He was probably sick and tired of those labels and changed himself to show people he could be just as spontaneous as a "bad boy."

But back to the subject at hand... "I left because...I couldn't talk to Kari about Dad being in the hospital because she always ends up crying, or even Mom because she would always avoid the subject or snap at me if I tried to talk about it...and then there was also…well-because Sora was-" he glanced around to see if Matt or Sora were around, "-was bringing back old feelings...I can't believe they were still with me after all those years. I was a kid then, I don't understand why this feeling isn't going away!"

"Because...maybe it wasn't just a childish crush then. It's probably a powerful, devouring emotion that a practical and able man shares with a practical and able woman at a stage in which love is not merely premature, but developed and true."

"What are you now, a fucking psychologist?" Tai replied, giving Jyou a small smirk.

"I've been doing some research and reading some analytic essays and books on human interactions and romantic relationships. Just some light, bed-side reading," Jyou smiled.

"Jyou...Jyou...Jyou...this is not the way to get a chick."

"And I bet the way you're doing it is a much better way," Jyou responded quickly.

Tai laughed heartily. "Wow...that red mohawk has really helped you out with your intrapersonal and interpersonal relationship/s."

"Ah, I see you've been doing your own research."

"No, I saw something about it on Cartoon Network," Tai said with a smile. He patted Jyou's back and stood up, heading back into the house. "Thanks for talking to me Jyou, I always knew you as the most reliable friend."

"You're welcome," Jyou replied with a smile. Jyou sighed. He couldn't understand why Tai didn't want to simplify his life and just tell her how he felt. He frowned. But then again, it was never just that simple to tell a girl one's inner most feelings.

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Sora's eyes moved across the room to where Tai was entering from the front door. It was the first time in hours since she'd last seen him. It was no joke when Matt told her that Jyou's house was gigantic, it truly was. With seven engulfing bedrooms, two sweeping living rooms, two kitchens, a den, six and a half bathrooms, and a three-car garage with heated floors, it was no surprise when they found it hard to look for other living things.

She recalled Matt had also told her a story about how Jyou owned a cat once.

"When they first got the cat, Kon, she would come to kitchen #1 every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then Kon would go walking around the house until she ended up at Jyou's room to rest for a while before going off to explore again. Kon's eating and exploring habits were so predictable that Jyou, and the others who lived with him, never really worried much about her. Plus, she would rarely ever go outside."

"So what happened? Why don't they have her anymore?"

Matt shrugged. "A couple months later, the cat just didn't come down for breakfast…by the time lunch time came along; people started getting worried and looked for her around the house, calling her name. But no one ever found out what happened to her."

"Do you think she died somewhere? Shouldn't there have been some funky smells coming from one of the rooms, then?"

"Like I said, no one ever found out what happened to her," Matt repeated.

She glared at the wild-haired boy who entered the house. It was funny how some part of her really wished that Tai was the vanished cat.

Then without a chance to escape, Tai turned to her, catching her eyes in a stiff, unspoken glaring competition.

"Oh. I should get out of here. You probably think I followed you into the house. Ooooooooh," Tai teased, a small smirk forming on the right side of his mouth.

Sora shook her head and gave a short, bitter laugh. "I swear…it's fine that Mom took Mrs. Yagami and Kari in, but I just don't understand why she didn't just let you rot in the streets!"

Tai's smirk disappeared. For a split second, he wondered if Sora really meant what she said because of the severely poignant look she was giving him, and it hurt him that she might. And most of the time, when Tai felt hurt, he was unable to keep his mouth from running off and saying something that would, in turn, hurt the other person twice as much. He couldn't believe he was about to say the world's worst thing to say at the world's most perfect moment to say it:

"Hmm. She was probably too busy with her boyfriend to notice that I came with them," he snapped, but regretted it the moment he got past the word "She."

Sora's eyes changed from bitter rivalry, to pure betrayal and anger. She turned and ran past Tai and disappeared through the front door, leaving it to slam behind Tai. Tai flinched as he closed his eyes and swore silently.

_I can't believe I just said that to her…Tai! How callous can you be? How damn bi-polar can you be? First you're the one person who was able to comfort her when she saw her mom walk in to the store with that man, and now you're the one person who completely shattered what was left of her pride and temporary happiness from the crap her parents put her through four years ago! You asshole! You deserve to rot outside her house…_ Tai battered himself.

Now what was he going to do? Apologize? He couldn't even begin to imagine how hard it was going to be to apologize to her.

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"You know Jyou…I don't understand him. I mean, I know I'm rude, vulgar, and stubborn when I want to be, but…Tai…he's just so…complex. He's like the mind of a woman. Women's minds are so complex because they tend to over-analyze things and nag and complain. And Tai…I can't explain it, but he's so…so…"

"Bi-polar?" Jyou suggested.

Sora nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah…yeah, something like that. At one moment, he really seems to understand me and acts like he's never going to truly crush my feelings or my happiness, then he goes and says something like that."

Jyou raised a brow as he turned to her from his position on the front steps. "What exactly did he-well, you probably don't want to repeat it if it bothered you so much."

"No…he said something about my mom's boyfriend."

"I…don't understand… You don't like him?"

Sora laughed her bitter laugh. "Not only do I not like him, I wish he falls in a sand hole in the beach and gets necrotizing fasciitis so that his legs could get amputated by a fat elderly woman with a chunky mole on her neck named Krishna who ends giving him a big fat kiss so that he'd get herpes."

(Flesh eating bacteria. It's pretty gross. Go google it.)

Jyou nodded slowly. "So…I see you've got everything figured out."

"Oh yes," Sora responded, staring off into the dark sky with relentless, malicious, demonic thoughts circulating in her mind.

Jyou laughed nervously. "Eh heh…" He quickly decided to interrupt her thoughts. "I just don't understand why you don't like him. Does he hurt your mom?"

Sora was silent before she answered. Sora was really never one to reveal deep, dark secrets about her family, but in this case, maybe letting it out to someone else besides Tai would be relieving. "Jyou…do you know why I left Odaiba in the first place?" Jyou shook his head. "It's because of that guy. My mom cheated on my dad with that guy. There was this huge complicated deal about finances, who was going to get what, what was going where, and who was going to keep me, and, of course, I didn't hesitate to choose my dad after what happened. Did you know that I was the one who found them together? What's worse is that they weren't hugging, holding hands, or kissing when I found them. Dad and I had just returned from my soccer practice and I raced into the house because I was so excited to tell Mom that my team was going to Nationals…and…" Sora closed shook her head slowly.

Jyou patted her hand reassuringly. She looked up at him and smiled sullenly. "You don't have to dig back into your past if you don't want to," he told her.

"No. I'd like you to know the truth." Sora continued. "When I ran into my parents' room, I found my mother and that asshole in the throes of sexual passion on the bed that both of my parents slept in. There was thrusting—definite thrustage going on—and I hate that I can remember it so vividly. It makes me hate my mom so much! But…I don't want to hate her…because she's my mom and I know she cares about me…"

"I'm sorry…I didn't know. I thought you moved to Okayama because of the new housing developments and the private schools… Well, at least that's what I've heard."

"Yeah. That was the excuse we gave everyone, but no one ever really knew the truth except for, well Tai, his family, and my family, and now you. It's strange how close they were to one another while Tai and I…well that never really worked out, did it? Ugh...plus there were some issues I had with the guy my mom was banging. It was this whole thing."

"So why'd you go back if your mom caused you such trauma?"

"Well…see, for some reason, my dad has never held a grudge over my mom and the two seemed to have kept in touch over the years-like-like they were friends or something! I mean, even after what I was put through during the divorce. The things she said about my dad… the way my dad looked when the papers were finalized…And I couldn't believe my mom still went out with that jerk. But…I have no choice since I'm a kid with no job…and my dad loves his job so I told him that while he's in New York, I would stay with Mom for him."

"Aw Sora…" Jyou spoke softly. "If I had known…"

Sora shrugged it off. "There was no way you could have found out anyways. It's no problem. It's all over now. I just have…some awkward moments with my mom, but…but it'll work itself out."

"Talk to her. Maybe there's a reason to why she and your dad are still on speaking terms."

"Uggghh. You too huh? I swear, everyone's been telling me to go talk to her, but I'm not going to-"

"Sora, they are all right you know. If there's any advice I could leave you with, it's to talk to her. If you never talk to her, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Your mom's not going to live forever, you know. You should talk to her now while she's not yet…senile or dying."

Sora chuckled softly. "I'll think about it."

Jyou gave her a skeptical look. "Just remember what I said."

"Got it. Talk…Mom…senile. Yep. I gotcha!"

"Sora, I'm serious! I don't want to be insensitive or anything-but I'm a changed man now so I might be-I think that your parents' divorce might have been inevitable. That's probably why your parents are still friendly with one another. Just talk it over. You'll find out the truth."

She carefully analyzed the look in Jyou's knowing eyes. She thought Jyou was studying to be a general practitioner, not a therapist. She shook her head.

"Okay, okay! I'll do it…just give me some time. I don't think I'm ready right now. If I talk to her, I'd probably blow up in her face and start throwing frighteningly sharp objects."

Jyou laughed, even though it was slightly scary. People really do change in just four years. Especially Sora; with all those hateful, angry feelings swirling inside her, who wouldn't turn out that way?

The door suddenly swung open. Jyou and Sora impulsively glanced at the door finding Tai standing there, looking almost…apprehensive.

Tai glanced down to where Jyou had his hand on Sora's. Wow. Jyou is getting so much better with the ladies. Just one day and he's already all over Sora… he thought, his left eye twitching anxiously. "Am I interrupting anything?" he asked, stiffly.

Jyou and Sora looked down to where their hands were set on one another and quickly pulled away. "No!" the shouted simultaneously.

"We were…"

"Sora was just…"

Then there was a moment of silence.

Tai turned toward Sora, breaking the thick silence. "Um…Sora…I…" he cleared his throat. "Ehrm…I need to talk to you."

Jyou and Sora looked at one another. Jyou shrugged. Sora looked back up at Tai. "What for? I don't really want to talk to you right now Yagami."

Tai groaned. He hated it when she called him by his last name. "Dammit Takenouchi, it's important!" he growled, walking back into the house, hoping she'd follow after him.

Sora looked back at Jyou and sighed. "I swear, that boy is so confusing…" she muttered before standing up and dusting herself off. She smiled at Jyou. "Thanks for listening to my woes. Oh, and by the way, I'm really digging the mohawk." With a little wink, she turned and went into the house.

Jyou grinned like a little boy once Sora disappeared through the door. _I can see why those two are so infatuated with her…_

Just as Sora left, Matt walked outside, startling Jyou from his seat.

_Damn, am I some kind of counselor now?_ Jyou thought, expecting that Matt might want to talk too. He watched as Matt slowly took a seat next to him, staring up at the dark sky with his hands wrapped around his knees. Well…Matt was never the type to want to talk much about his problems. He mostly preferred silence in the company of others. The silence and the company was enough for him. But Jyou knew, somehow, that Matt wasn't just having girl problems. There was something else bothering him.

"Might it be something domestic?" Jyou blurted out.

Matt smiled softly. "How do you always know these things?"

"I read minds."

"Well in that case…yes. I'm having some issues with my mom. But—"

"You don't really want to talk about it?" Jyou suggested.

Matt laughed. "You hit the spot. Now…since you have all these special powers. Tell me something. What ever happened to Kon?"

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"What do you want Yagami?" Sora questioned bitterly, her arms folded, eyes burning to tear him down. Tai laughed nervously, his eye unconsciously twitching.

"Uh…well…I just wanted to…"

"Come on now, don't waste my time. I've had enough of you bullying me this entire trip! I just don't understand why you can't get over our little rivalry when we were kids! I mean, if you liked me when we were younger, why didn't you just tell me instead of being an asshole?" she screamed, her hands folded into fists and her eyes still burning…burning…

"BECAUSE—"

"Because…?"

"Because I thought you'd laugh. And I couldn't let my pride get beaten down by someone I really cared about," Tai wanted to say.

But of course, like he wanted to say, he didn't want his pride to get beaten down. He couldn't allow himself to get torn down by a girl he was utterly crazy about…even now she still had that effect on him. Maybe Jyou was right? It wasn't just a cute, little childish crush… Then what was it?

"Well?" Sora snapped him back to reality. Her ruby eyes searched his dark ones, hoping to find an answer to why they could never get along and why he kept trying to push her away despite her attempts to become friends with him. Then she found it. There it was, his profound, penetrating emotions…nakedly exposed to her eyes. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat and began drumming wildly in her chest when abruptly he blinked several times and turned away. Suddenly, his emotions disappeared from his eyes. She turned away as well, her pale face flushed with color.

"Because that's just the way I am," he muttered. Not exactly what he wanted to say, but for now, he was safe.

_Is Tai…?_ She couldn't finish her thoughts.

When she looked up, she found Tai standing before her, wanting so much to show her that he was dauntless. That he would tell her how he felt that exact moment. That even after all these years…he still had feelings for her.

"Sora…"

Sora's eyes widened and she gasped softly when she found Tai's hand reaching up to her face. Sora grasped Tai's other hand and held it between both of hers. The two of them looked down at where they were touching, their hearts twined in a series of uncontrollable beats. They looked up into each other's eyes.

_What am I doing?_ Sora wondered. But she couldn't keep her eyes away from his. "Tai…I also…um…"

Just as his other hand reached up to softly caress the length of her neck, his mouth reached her cheek and he rested his lips against her ears.

Sora closed her eyes, delving in the feeling he was giving her, forgetting that she was about to say something to him. Just being in such close proximity to one another was making her knees suddenly feel like melted chocolate. She held tightly onto his hand as he parted his lips to whisper something to her.

"Sora…"

"Tai, just tell me…" she whispered back, longing for him to continue. She thought her heart was going to stop from beating so fast. If only he would just…

"You know Matt has feelings for you…" he whispered.

Sora's eyes quickly blinked wide open and she shoved him away.

"What?"

That was not exactly what she was expecting. But then again, neither was he.

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	9. A Little Me Time For Mimi

A/N: On to chapter 9 of the revamp!

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Spring Ranting

chapter nine - A Little Me Time For Mimi

"Matt has feelings for you?"

What kind of sick person was Tai! She actually let her guard down and allowed Tai to get so close to making her reveal such inner, latent, clandestine desire. Sora turned a bright, obviously embarrassed crimson. That was really the last thing she expected to come out of Tai's mouth at that instant. How could he!

Tai swore under his breath after the words came out. _Wha—of all the things you could've—dammit Tai! You're so stupid! Idiot, what were you thinking? _he reprimanded himself. The minute the words came out, he immediately regretted saying them.

"Sora…I didn't—" he attempted to take them back, but of course, there was no possible, plausible way to do that, unless he killed her.

Sora laughed bitterly and stepped away from him. "Forget it," she spat before turning away from him and walking down the hall to her room. She couldn't look at him right now. She was so humiliated that she didn't even want to go out for dinner later that night despite her growling stomach.

Did he really say what he thought he said? After being so close to Sora? After being absolutely positive that she was returning his actions…and maybe—feelings? Tai felt like tearing at his mass of hair. _Gods!_ He swore to himself as he smacked himself in the face. He couldn't imagine anyone more stupid than he was at that very moment. Of all the rotten things I could have said…Tai suddenly got a surprising thought. _Maybe I secretly do want them to be together…_

O

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At the dinner table, Jyou and Matt glared at Tai with the most piercing looks of suspicion. They seemed to be watching his every muscle movement—from the way his biceps lifted and stretched as his chopsticks touched the food, to the way his elbows grazed the table cloth when he lifted the chopsticks to his lips. They even watched him masticate and swallow his food.

Tai raised an annoyed brow at them. "WHAT!" he bellowed, pieces of rice flying out of his mouth.

"Now what did you say to the girl Tai?" Jyou snapped fiercely.

Tai scoffed. "Why is it that I'm always the one who's gotta say something?" he argued, digging deeply into his food.

Matt and Jyou gave each other apprehensive looks before returning to their food. Maybe it was Sora who'd said something, but the two of them would never know. Sora and Tai seemed to be the most stubborn bunch of idiots Jyou had ever seen in his life. No one could force a word from their lips unless they were absolutely willing—or a gang member of the Yakuza was shoving a gun down their throats. Yeah, it was that drastic.

Jyou turned to Matt as he chewed his food. Except for Matt… Of all the years of friendship with Matt and Tai, Matt seemed to be the more level-headed one of the duo and always seemed to get tidbits of information from the unstable Tai. Maybe he had some well-thought out techniques of manipulation that Tai couldn't figure out, even now? Jyou eyed the two boys rushing to finish their food in an unspoken battle to devour all the contents of their plates first.

"What the fuck did you say to Sora, you dumbass!" Matt suddenly growled, standing up from his chair with hands slammed against the table top.

"Nothing! I said nothing, okay!" Tai snapped, stabbing his food and sticking the pieces into his mouth. Matt sighed and turned back to eating. There was no way he was going to get anything out of Tai tonight. Maybe he would wait until Tai calmed down, or maybe until he calmed down.

Jyou watched as the two began eating in silence once more. He was never going to understand why they had to make everything so difficult. Those two had the combined mentality of a female gorilla.

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_Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could you actually think that Tai still…_ Sora thought, as she listened to two cats fighting outside her window. There was hissing, vicious mewing, and some obvious claw action. It distracted her from her thoughts, but the events of that evening just came crashing back down on her.

She finally rested her head on her pillow and sighed, her eyes shutting tightly in hopes that she would stop thinking about the boy with the large mass of hair. Again…maybe she was over-analyzing Tai's intentions, but she felt like she was humiliated and rejected just for Tai's amusement.

She was glad she didn't have to go back to Odaiba tonight. Later that night, she heard Jyou knock on her door and whisper that he had talked to her, Matt's, and Tai's parents telling them that they were staying the night at his house. How he managed to get them to say "yes", she had no idea, nor did she want to know because asking would only open the door to conversation, and she really didn't want to let Jyou know what happened between her and Tai earlier that day. She knew that Jyou had a way of coaxing answers out of people and she was just too embarrassed to let him in on the little secret. If only Tai had…

_If only he had what? Said he had feelings for you? Kissed you? What would you have done? Kissed him back?_

Her mind seemed to be answering its own questions.

_Then what would have happened if you kissed him back?_

_I don't know…_

_You don't know because you don't even know if you have feelings for him._

_How do you know!_

_I'm you, you idiot._

It was true. Sora couldn't even sort out her own feelings for Tai so maybe it was for the best that he said what he did. What if she had kissed him? If Tai really had feelings for her she would only be hurting him because of her uncertainty. What if she had feelings for Matt?

_Matt has been awfully nice to you…he knows what you're going through with your family…and man is he gorgeous_! Sora blushed at her own thoughts. And didn't Tai say that Matt had feelings for her? If that were the case, what was she to do about that?

_Nothing. You were never the type to chase after a guy, or yearn for their affection. If it happened, it happened._

Maybe she was just over-analyzing again.

_I'm such a girl…_she sulked, digging her face into the pillow. _I'll take the cowardly way out and just leave early tomorrow so I don't have to face Tai or Matt._

The next morning, while Matt and Tai were still snoring in their beds, Sora snuck out of her room and slid quietly through the hallway, grasping her wallet in her hand. She scrunched her face in a wince, hoping that she wouldn't wake anyone up as she bolted out of the door. Unfortunately for her, there were other people who were already awake.

"OHAYOO TAKENOUCHI-SAN!" cried three bald men watering three identical plants by the window sill of the kitchen sink. They beamed at her with their tiny, elderly eyes as the water escaped their bowls and poured into their respective pots. They were all wearing equally identical blue robes with brown sandals and…their heads were surprisingly distracting as the light seemed to shine so brightly upon them. Sora stared at them, horrified that they had screamed her name so loudly that it seemed to reverberate throughout the house. What was more…how did they know her name?

"How did you—I mean…Eh…heh…good morning to all of you too…um…can you please keep it down sirs? I just want to—"

"Where are you running off to?" a familiar, deep voice inquired. Sora head instantly turned to the voice and smiled sheepishly. Then she thought about it. Why does she have to hide or explain herself to Jyou?

"I'm going home Jyou. I know I'm being childish, but I think it's time for me to go home, don't you think so?" she said.

"Okay, go ahead. But I just want to say one thing Sora," Jyou returned.

"And what is that?"

"Stop running. From your mom, from your feelings for certain...boy...sss?"

Sora snorted. "Feelings! Wha-and what do you mean I'm running away from my mom? I'm taking the train back to her aren't I?"

"You're smart, you know what I mean."

Sora looked into his dark eyes. Jyou was right. They say smart kids have no common sense since they spent all their time studying, but Jyou's common sense still seemed to be right where it should be.

"Okay," she agreed. "Thanks Jyou."

Sora turned to leave, but Jyou tapped her gently on the shoulder and grabbed her hand. "Here, you might need this," he said, placing a small can of pepper spray in her hand.

She chuckled and playfully slapped his arm. "Thanks."

O

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The trip home had been silent, and not the dangerous, molest-expecting trip she had thought about throughout the train ride after Jyou had given her that pepper spray. There was one creepy old man with wiry hair and dark, baggy eyes who constantly raped her with his eyes, but Sora sat close to a group of school girls on a field trip just to be safe. After she left the station, that was all she saw of the creepy man. As she walked down the street from the station she noticed a little cafe/gift shop that seemed very, very familiar. It has certainly been a while since she's been in Odaiba if she can't even remember a corner cafe/gift shop by the train station.

Through the window she saw something else that was familiar.

Sora walked in and took a seat at the bar, finally recalling the cafe/gift shop called Thanh's Bistro. It was a little shop with about 14 tables, open from 10:00AM to 5:00PM every day. The "gift shop" portion was pretty much a shelf with magnets and cheap touristy items next to the register with a sign that said "gift shop" on it. It was nothing like a bistro but she remembered that the cafe/gift shop had opened a year before she left. An aging Vietnamese woman with fake breasts who had previously worked as a low-budget porn star in Tokyo opened the shop up in the name of her ex-boyfriend…an ex-boyfriend who happened to get arrested sometime after their two-year anniversary for child molestation. She insisted that it be called a "bistro" because it was classier that way. But…whatever.

A girl turned from the open kitchen behind the counter and smiled cheerfully at her, greeting the new customer as she turned. Her long, chestnut hair barely touched her hips, leaving it to grow for four long years. Her light eyes were friendly and sweet.

"OH MY GOD."

Sora smiled. "Nice to see you again too Mimi."

Mimi Tachikawa practically jumped at her from over the counter, lunging at the older girl with arms around her neck. She kept talking and squealing so that Sora couldn't get a single word in. After Mimi had finally calmed down a few minutes after, the two sat down at the bar during Mimi's break and had a cup of green tea. Yes…those typical Japanese folk.

Mimi sipped her hot tea cautiously. "So what happened?" she asked as she set the cup down. "I mean-I didn't hear from you for four years and now you just appear in front of me out of nowhere!"

"I had…family problems," she stated simply.

Mimi nodded. "I completely understand where you're coming from. Mama caught Daddy in bed with her secretary when she came to New York to surprise him a couple days before his birthday. It was so sad because Mama even had a car flown over to New York just for him because she knew how much he wanted it."

Sora knew she had her jaw down to the counter, but she couldn't help it. Mimi just told her something absolutely traumatizing and she didn't even flinch. Sora cleared her throat to speak after she caught her jaw.

"And-and you're fine with this? Um…wait, are you sure you want to talk about this Mimi?"

Mimi smiled sweetly and scoffed before taking another sip of her tea. "Oh don't even worry about it. This happened two months after you disappeared. It was a long time ago. I had to have therapy for two years because I was actually with Mama when she caught him giving it to her secretary but that's all old news." Again Sora's jaw was dropped. She couldn't understand Mimi.

Things have definitely changed since she'd last been in Odaiba.

"Wow Meems, WOW."

"I know…So I completely understand where you're coming from."

"Yeah."

"So are you going to be here for a while?"

"I'm actually leaving once my dad comes back from…uh…New York," Sora said slowly, hoping the state of New York didn't completely destroy Mimi mentally.

Mimi nodded. "That's cool. I wish you could stay longer. We have so much to talk about…I mean there are four years that passed us! So many things must have happened during that time. I know things have certainly happened here."

Sora leaned forward. Mimi was just full of gossip and she knew it. Sora had absolutely nothing against Mimi. She loved the girl to death because she seemed so optimistic about everything no matter how bleak everything seemed to be. Mimi was a year younger, but she definitely had her share of experience…especially now. One thing that hadn't changed was that mouth of hers.

"So what's been going on Mimi?"

"Lots of things…there was a huge earthquake a few years back that killed Kochi-san…you know, that second grade teacher everyone loved?"

"Oh my…"

"Yeah, that was unfortunate. Then a child molester came around while this cafe was being renovated and had kidnapped TK Takaishi and took indecent pictures of him in Spiderman briefs. The poor kid got so traumatized. I actually saw him at the clinic where I was being treated."

"Matt's little brother!" Sora put a hand over her mouth to muffle a squeal of anguish.

"Yup. He's such a cute kid too. He's going to be a heartbreaker when he gets older. Even now the only people he really talks to are Ken Ichijouji, Matt, and me. But he has this huge, overwhelming crush on Kari. He's just too shy to go for it," Mimi told her.

"How's Matt?"

"Still being Matt," Mimi replied. "Still the cool, troubled, mysterious guy that every girl in school is in love with. He has this band…it just makes things a lot easier for him-in the girl department I mean. None of them seemed to capture him though. I think he's thinking of someone else. His Dad slowly began an alcohol problem two years ago and Matt hired officials to take him to rehab."

All this was so overwhelming for Sora. All this happened in four years? "What else happened?" She was curious and furious at the guy who had defiled TK that way. She still only remembered him as a happy little boy, despite his and Matt's parents being separated at such a young age.

"Well, Yolei won a scholarship for school in California and she hasn't been back since. Do you remember Yolei? She's the violet-haired girl who was a couple years under us. Smart girl, a little clumsy, but very smart. And I'm actually seeing Izzy right now. We went to Hawaii last summer with his family and I met the Hawaiian half of his family."

"Izzy's half-Hawaiian?"

"Haha…crazy isn't it? I don't even know what Hawaiian is. I didn't know that he was half anything until we actually went to Hawaii and I met his cousins."

"Weird…"

Mimi smiled. "I know you have a bunch more questions you want to ask me. I'll answer anything."

"How is Tai these days?" Sora inquired.

"Tai? Oh him? He might be the most normal guy around here. Not traumatized by child molesters or experienced his parents with strange sex toys-"

"What!"

"Oh…that's another story. But yeah…Tai is just trying to heal right now from his Dad being in that accident and all."

"Yeah I heard about it."

"He's in love with you, you know."

Sora looked up at her with curious eyes. "What?"

"You heard me. Even when you left, he dated around but he couldn't seem to get you off his mind. You know we had gone out a few times during high school right?"

"Yeah I heard about that too," Sora said with a quick smirk. "How did that work out?"

"I swear Sora, one time we were making out on his couch and he said your name."

Sora burst out laughing. "Whatever Mimi! We were kids when I left! How could he possibly have been in love with me?"

Mimi put her hand over Sora's. "In all seriousness Sora. He had a letter for you before you left but he never gave it to you. I guess that's one reason why he couldn't get you off of his mind was because there was never any closure. You were so blind not to see it back then! Everyone knew he had a huge crush on you. He was doing everything a typical boy with an ego would do when he has a crush. Picked on you terribly then would do the nicest things for you."

Sora leaned back against the counter of the bar. How was she supposed to respond to that?

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Thanh's Bistro closed just before the two girls went their separate ways. Sora and Mimi exchanged numbers so they could talk again at a later time. It had been an interesting little conversation. As she walked home, she wondered what it would have been like if she had stayed in Odaiba during those four years. If she hadn't been so angry at her mom for what she did. Would she have been involved in all the drama that occurred during that time? Would she and her mom have a better relationship? And that guy...

She shook her thoughts away and walked to her front door and took a deep breath before turning the key and pushing the door open.

The eyes of Tai, Kari, her mom, Mrs. Yagami, and her mom's boyfriend were all staring at her when she shut the door behind her. Just the sight of that man in the house got her worked up. She couldn't believe her mom took him in the house! Her eyes went from that man to her mom before she ran up the stairs and shut the door behind her.

"She still hates me huh?" the boyfriend asked.

Mrs. Takenouchi could only give him a look of apology. "She hates me too."

O

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Sora sat on the roof that night and watched the remaining beams of the sun sink behind the mountains. This was one of those moments where she felt she needed a cigarette.

_No, smoking is bad. Bad, bad, bad. With very bad consequences, _she scolded herself.

"Hey," she heard Tai whisper as he stood by the window sill, looking at her from inside the house. "You should come inside, you'll get sick."

Sora shook her head. "Do you think I'm being childish for acting this way?"

"Honestly? Yes."

Sora sighed and propped her chin against her knees and continued to stare out into the sky. She couldn't help being childish. She hated to admit it, but she was very old-fashioned when it came to having two parents. She always wished that her parents would someday fall in love again and get back together…but that guy just ruined all those chances.

Tai climbed out and sat next to her, nudging her slightly, beckoning her to get back inside. Sora gave him a half-hearted smile and shook her head.

"Thanks for your concern Tai, but I'll just sit here for a bit. You can stay if you like, but there's no guarantee that I'm going to respond to anything you're going to say after I tell you this," she warned him. She haughtily turned back to her dying scenery and waited for him to leave, but hoping at the same time that he would just stay and annoy her for a little longer.

Instead, he kissed her. He turned her chin toward him in a quick, swift motion of his forefinger and stole a kiss from her slightly parted lips. It was light, but with a startling amount of pressure to surprise the living daylights out of Sora. As he pulled away, Sora's crimson eyes glistened as she looked into his eyes, the surprise still lingering in her eyes. He was looking for an unspoken response. And he got one. Sora grabbed onto his shirt collar with both hands and tightened her grip on it as she pulled him close to her for a continuation of that kiss. With their mouths against each other's like that, Sora couldn't even imagine what they had fought about earlier.

Sora released his collar and slipped her hands under his shirt, wrapping her arms around his back before letting them travel across his chest, running her fingers along his ribs. Tai shivered under the touch of her cold hands but didn't stop her as her hands moved to his jeans. At this point, their kiss deepened considerably and all the two of them thought about was the cold breeze that blew across their anxiously, but surely baring bodies.

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A/N: Hmm…this triangle is beginning to look like a two-sided thing now. Anyway on to the next chapter!


	10. For the Love of Socks

A/N: Yay! This is the last chapter of the revamp and on to new material! Enjoy!

Spring Ranting

chapter ten - For the Love of Socks

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Tai suddenly pulled away from Sora's tightening grasp. "Sora, I can't-"

"What do you mean you can't? I know you have feelings for me-" Sora continued to unbutton his shirt as she hovered over him in an attempt to continue their previous engagement.

"I already know that you know…" he quickly interrupted her, finally grabbing onto her hands and holding it between his. He looked down at their intertwined hands, absolutely ecstatic that Sora had returned his kiss-a kiss that was somehow leading to more than just kissing-but he knew, despite the increasing size of the lump in his throat (and pants) and from the happiness he was trying to suppress, Sora had other things on her mind that she was just trying to get away from.

"So what's the problem?" Sora asked, removing a hand from his grasp and stroking his face with the back of her fingers.

Tai couldn't help but look at her. He had wanted this for so long… "Sora, I think you're just upset about your mom so you're trying to get away from your problems by doing this. It's not right. Besides-and I know many guys would think I'm less of a man for refusing you but-this is the wrong place and the wrong time to be doing something like this."

Sora was shocked at Tai's level of maturity. Surely any other guy would have jumped at the chance to have sex with her or any girl who threw themselves at him. But Tai had definitely grown up… She pulled away from him and looked up at the horizon. The sun had completely set now and all she could see was the outline of the mountain from the dim light of the moon. What could she possibly say to what Tai just told her? She knew it was partly because of her mom…but did she really even have feelings for Tai? When he had kissed her, it felt so warm and comfortable, as if it had been the right thing to do all along…but at the same time, was comfort all she felt from that kiss? Were there any sparks, any deeper connections?

"I really think you should work it out with your mom before we do anything and before you have to go back to Okayama and leave us all behind again," Tai said with a look of sarcasm in his eyes before he patted her back and climbed back through the window. Sora's concerned eyes under her furrowed brows followed Tai's back as he disappeared behind her bedroom door. She rolled her eyes and sighed before turning back to the dark horizon.

"Tai…" she couldn't help but let his name roll out of her mouth.

That must've been the strangest encounter she had with that boy…then again every encounter with him had been a bit strange so far.

O

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Tai tried not to think about what happened between Sora and him the night before. Breakfast was a little awkward for the two of them as they continuously snuck peeks at one another when they thought the other wasn't looking. Sora picked at her green beans anxiously, unwilling to put them in her mouth because of her irrational fear of the fact that Tai might be watching her…eat her green beans.

The school year was finally over and Spring Break had arrived! Maybe that's all Tai should have been focusing on that morning. Matt, Jyou, and Izzy had so many plans laid out for the spring vacation they anticipated for so long. They had hoped that their dysfunctional families hadn't planned any family get-together for the two weeks that they planned so thoroughly…

"NO you dumbasses! We agreed to go to the Samui Kodomo* open concert by the bay. Come on, you can't even try to appreciate Aota Kimura's* awesome guitar riffs?" Matt argued as the boys attempted to find common ground over the phone.

"Yeah, yeah we agreed to do that on March 27th, but the comic book convention in Kanzai-" Izzy began.

"Comic book convention!" Jyou and Matt interjected pretty damn loudly.

"What's wrong with that?" Izzy inquired.

"Tai, tell him what's wrong with that," Jyou asked the silent boy.

There was a pause as the boys waited for Tai's response, but nothing came. "Tai?" Matt called, breaking the silence. "He didn't get disconnected, I still see him on my phone."

"Huh-oh, what? Sorry guys…do you think we can do this later?" Tai finally responded.

"Wha-Tai! Come on, Spring Break for us starts tomorrow! We need to plan now before we get everything too messed up and we end up going to different places-or even spend vacation with our-" he gulped, "-families," Izzy explained nervously.

"Yeah, okay, definitely. I'll call you guys later. Bye." Tai hung up as protests were being made on the other line. It's true…he didn't want to spend Spring Break with his family or even Sora's family but ever since Sora came back into the picture, all he wanted to do was help her.

_What to do…what to do…_ he pondered silently as he sat on the corner of his bed.

O

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"Tai! Guess what!"

"What?" Tai replied, flipping through a magazine while flipping through the channels of the TV on the living room couch. Sora still recalled their awkward instance, but she couldn't help but push the memory aside for both of their sake. To her surprise, Tai was doing the same thing. Forgetting the entire thing never happened. She scooted next to him and grabbed the remote control away from his hand.

Tai was forced to look at her. She smiled innocently. "I got a job!"

"Yay." The reply was enthusiastic and oh-so full of life. Not.

Sora frowned. "Okay, I guess I'm the only excited one. But you know, since I'm going to be here for a bit, I thought I should keep myself busy while I'm staying in this godforsaken city so I have an excuse for not being home all day. Isn't that great?"

Tai continued to flip through his magazine as he replied, "You don't need a job, your dad left you money."

"Were you not paying attention? I'm doing it to keep busy, not for the money."

"Then volunteer at a shelter or something. Help those starving street punks so they don't throw things at me when I don't give them money."

"Well I start on Tuesday so I can't get out of it now. Besides Mimi's gonna help me out."

Tai looked up from his magazine for a moment. "Wait-wha-are you working at that crappy cafe? Sora, you can do better than that, come on!" In reality, he just didn't want her spending so much time with Mimi. Mimi knew way too much about this part of town that he really wished she didn't. The fact that she liked to talk was a downer too. In less than three hours, Sora would know all there is to know about everyone living in Odaiba.

"Um…well isn't Mimi busy working too? She can't help you all the time."

Sora smiled. "Well right now she's training me so she has to spend time with me. You know she's told me a lot of stuff about how Odaiba has changed."

Tai swallowed. He didn't realize how hard it was to swallow until now. It felt like sandpaper in that darn esophagus of his. So Mimi had already opened that pretty little mouth of hers. He suddenly had the urge to go to her house, tie her to a chair and duct tape her entire face so she couldn't speak or attempt to communicate with Morse code through her eyes EVER. He'd be generous, of course, and poke holes where her nostrils should be so she can breathe. "Oh yeah?" he croaked. "Like what?"

"Like how Izzy's part Hawaiian."

Tai scoffed. "No he's not!"

"Uh-huh, ask Mimi. She's going out with him remember?"

"Well he's one of my best friends. I think I would know."

"Well you're wrong."

"Hell no I'm not wrong."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Why don't you go ask him?"

"I don't need to, I already know."

"Whatever," Sora replied, rolling her eyes as she turned toward the TV and changed the channel. "You know you're wrong. Stop with the whole ego thing."

"What ego thing? I think you should stop with the whole ego thing Sora Takenouchi."

Sora stopped flipping through the channels. She had a feeling that they weren't talking about Izzy being Hawaiian anymore.

"You know, you should start learning how to mind your own business."

"Well since I live with you, your business has become my business. I'm involved Sora, and there's nothing you can do to stop my involvement."

"I could kick you in your sensitive area as a warning. Would that stop your involvement?"

"You know Takenouchi, I should get you a puppy. Maybe it'll teach you to be a nice, behaved lady and to stop threatening to kick innocent guys like me in our baby maker. Now be a good girl," Tai told her, giving her a paternal pat on the head like she was a child. Sora grumbled and shoved his hand away.

"Well, it really pisses me off when people try to tell me what to do," Sora snapped at him, slapping the magazine away from his hands and throwing the remote control at his face.

"He-Hey what the hell was that for!" Tai growled as he watched her walk away. He sighed and sat down. "Women and their damn PMSing," he muttered before he got back to flipping through his magazine.

But before Tai could really get into his magazine, the doorbell rang. He began muttering incoherently about doors, girls and their mood swings, and shoelaces. How the shoelaces fit into his nonsensical muttering, no one will ever know. Tai opened the door and found three of his friends standing at the door, elbowing each other like little children. Izzy, Matt, and Jyou were arguing about what they were to do during their Spring Break again, this time getting fed up with Tai avoiding their calls regarding their plans.

"We are fed up with you avoiding our calls regarding our plans Taichi Yagami!" Izzy shouted, shoving Tai out of the way as he stomped into the house followed by Jyou and Matt who were heartily agreeing as they pushed their way into the house as well.

"Are you not looking forward to this anticipated trip, my friend?" Jyou asked, putting an arm around Tai. "Do you have other plans, perhaps?"

Tai could smell the obscene amount of hairspray Jyou had on his mohawk. Despite the guys bombarding him with questions about Spring Break, all Tai could think about was how long it must've taken Jyou to fix his 'hawk. It was just incredible.

"So?" Matt asked.

"So what?" Tai returned. He obviously wasn't listening to anything they had been saying for the past two minutes.

"Why weren't you listening to anything we've been saying for the past two minutes!" Izzy shouted again, shoving Tai.

"Izzy, will you chill out?" Matt warned, patting Izzy's shoulder. "We won't get anything from this dumbass if you keep shouting at him. He'll only drown you out again."

"You're right." Izzy took a deep breath. "I just want to know why you're not planning with us. A couple of weeks ago you were the one calling us at three in the morning to ask us what the plans are and what our budget was supposed to be. You were so psyched. Then all of a sudden you seemed to have left us hanging. What's going on Tai?" Izzy inquired, suddenly becoming genuinely concerned about his brown-haired friend.

"I've just been-" Tai paused and looked down at his shoes. "There have been a lot of things on my mind. Sorry okay? You guys can go ahead with the planning. I'll do whatever."

Matt gave him a sideways look. He knew what this was about. He slowly wandered away from the group as Jyou began talking to Tai. Their voices became muffled as Matt mumbled something about the bathroom and slid off. He stuffed his hands in his pockets as he climbed the stairs to the bathroom on the second floor. Sora must be around the house somewhere. He had to see her. The last time he saw her was a couple nights ago at Jyou's before she snuck off and left him and Tai to resolve things. He still couldn't understand the girl.

As he walked across the hall, his eyes darted toward each door, pressing his ear against each one hoping to hear a familiar voice or maybe hope for a door that was slightly cracked open. _Ahh…_ he grinned, seeing a glimpse of auburn hair move across the crack between the slightly opened door to what was obviously her bedroom. _Wait…this is Tai's room. What is she doing sneaking around Tai's room?_

Inside the room, Sora was sifting through dirty clothes, hangers, socks, and important papers that Tai thought looked better on his bedroom floor. _Doesn't he have any clean pairs of socks? Dammit…I just had to run out of socks now, didn't I? And today just happened to be the day that Kari ran out of socks too. And there is no way I'm asking my mom…_ Sora thought aimlessly as she dug through his cabinets and drawers.

"Score!" she cried once she found a rolled up pair of socks in his bottom drawer. As she pulled out the pair of socks, a crumpled sheet of paper fell out with it. Sora was undoubtedly going to ignore it, but a glimpse of her name on the piece of paper caught her eye. _What the…_

It was the letter. A small smiled crept onto her face.

Matt knocked on the door softly, and with the knock came a reaction.

"OH SHI-Ahh-I-" Sora began as she stood up and whirled around to see who had caught her red-handed. When she found Matt standing by the door she sighed and swore under her breath. "Matt! Was that really necessary?"

"The knock? That's what I usually do before I walk into someone's room. I'm guessing you don't do that?" Matt smirked, implying her intrusion into Tai's bedroom.

"Ughh…I was just looking for socks in this sewer he calls a room. I think I saw something crawl out of his closet…but I wasn't too sure. I think the smell was making me hallucinate," Sora muttered, sitting on the floor as she pulled the socks onto her cold feet. She smiled up at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Jyou, Izzy and I were planning Spring Break with Tai, but Tai hasn't been picking up our calls lately. Kinda pissed Izzy off so we came over here."

"Oh cool."

Matt nodded, but slowly added, "…and I wanted to see you too."

Sora looked up from her sock wearing and paused. "Hm? What for?"

"Uh…I…well I just wanted to see how you were doing…I mean with the whole Mom business."

"Well, it's going terribly. She brought the jerk into the house last night to have dinner. They were all sitting at the table like a happy family when I walked in. Disgusting."

"You should really listen to her explanation. Maybe she has one-it's just a suggestion. I'm not trying to pry or anything." Matt shut his mouth after the comment. "Never mind."

Sora sighed exasperatedly. "No you're right…Tai and Jyou said the same thing. I just can't bring myself to do it yet and everyone's pressuring me. I know it's childish-"

Matt took a seat next to her on the floor and inadvertently grabbed her hand. "No, it's not childish! You just need time to sort out your feelings because you feel like your dad's being replaced by some nobody."

Sora nodded, still not aware of the contact. "Yeah…that's exactly it. I hate that she…cheated...and didn't listen to me..."

"Cheated? Didn't listen to you about what?"

"Yep cheated. And disregarded my feelings. I mean I tried getting along with her boyfriend before I left since my dad wasn't so mad...but he's such a jerk. How could my mom like a guy like that?"

"I'm sorry…" Matt apologized.

"It's nothing-well it's something…but you don't have to feel sorry. If there was a logical explanation for her infidelity, then maybe I'd listen. But the fact that I caught them in the act of infidelity-I just can't. Plus I just felt so unimportant-"

"Wait. Caught them in the act of-?"

"Yes I caught them…"

"In the act?"

"In the act," Sora confirmed with a nod.

"Really?" Matt asked.

"Yes."

"Damn," Matt couldn't help but swear under his breath. Now he understood why it was so hard for Sora to forgive her mother and that guy. Her mom had been selfish. Matt wrapped his arms around her and held her as she rewound and replayed the incident over and over again in her head. "Odaiba is just filled with secrets…"

"Yes it is…" Sora whispered as she enjoyed the comfort in silence. But in the back of her mind, besides the whole mom thing, she was also extremely anxious to read what was written on the crumpled letter she held in her left hand.

The door suddenly burst open with Tai, Jyou, and Izzy at the door. Matt and Sora quickly pulled away from each other and looked at them guiltily, looking as if they were ready for an explanation but with nothing coming out of their mouths. Then the two of them spoke simultaneously, making absolutely no sense.

"Socks! And your room-like vinegar and crawling…" Sora stumbled on her words. She just shut up and looked down at the floor. "You know what I mean!" She couldn't understand why she was acting like this. There was nothing to be ashamed of. She was looking for socks.

So why couldn't she explain it correctly?

Before Sora could say another word, Matt spoke up with the same anxiety and urgency that she had in her voice. "And I was just helping…with the smell-I mean socks…not the smell, the smell-I can't even smell the smell and the socks don't smell-" Matt quickly joined Sora in silence when he couldn't remember what he was trying to say. And just like Sora, he turned a beet red. Then there was a moment of silence between both parties again. Tai's eyes moved to where Sora was sitting and their eyes locked. He spoke.

"You're right," he said with a slight look of betrayal in his eyes. "Izzy is part Hawaiian."

o

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o

o

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A/N: Yeah…Bye.

Samui Kodomo is a fictitious local Tokyo metal band that Matt absolutely fanaticizes. The lead guitarist is named Aota Kimura, other members will be named later if necessary.


	11. Truths, Dares, and Confessions

A/N: Okay, after many years, *drum roll* New chapter! I'm excited! I'm finally gonna finish this thing!

Here are some side notes. Little facty facts.

*Kyoto Hanatouro - Lanterns and Flower Lane. I don't know the actual date(s) of when this event takes place but I know it's sometime in March, the month in which Japanese students have their spring break. It's an event featuring a traditional Kyoto "Flower Dance," a brook lighted with 1000 green bamboo lanterns and a path arranged with flowers. It's beautiful during night time. Pictures I've seen from this event look amazing. Kinda sets a mood, don't it? ^_^

*Kotobikihama Beach - apparently there's musical sand at this beach or something.

Spring Ranting

chapter eleven – Truths, Dares, and Confessions

O

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Spring break had finally arrived and Odaiba was bustling with students enjoying their first day out of school. The park was packed, malls were swarming with people and the beach was filled with bodies basking in the glowing warmth of the sun. It was a perfect start to Spring break...

"FINALLY! A blueprint of our Spring Break plans!" Izzy breathed ecstatically, beaming at the plans they laid out.

"What are the plans Izzy?" everyone droned simultaneously. "Everyone" included Tai, Matt, Jyou, their good friend Michael, Catherine (who happened to be invited by her close friend Mimi), Yolei (who reserved vacation days months in advance just to spend spring break with her friends in Japan), and Sora. Mimi of course chirped excitedly, unbeknownst to her the tone of the rest of the group's voices.

Izzy gave an outstretched and deceptive grin. "Well, my friends, I'm so glad you asked that question. See, we, my friends, are not mundane, typical Japanese students. We refuse to squander our vacation on a week of tedious, every day activities and chores. We refuse to occupy that wretched mall! We refuse to let ourselves be drawn to the humdrum call of our usual park!" Izzy preached, fist in the air, chin high.

"Yeah baby!" Mimi cried out.

"Here we go..." Matt grumbled, slumping over in his chair.

Izzy ignored him. "You see, we will be inhabiting Jyou's enormous shrine estate in Kyoto, thanks to Jyou's immense generosity, for the majority of our vacation days. This includes five days total. During those five days we have organized various activities for each day. Day one, we will be attending the fabulous and ever-captivating 16th Annual Kyoto Comic-con-" he was interrupted by multiple groans and protests, "-okay I, ALONE, will be attending the Comic-con, you losers can waste day one."

"I'll be with you, sweetheart," Mimi interjected sweetly. Izzy blew her a kiss.

"We can go bike riding! There are some amazing parks-ooh the Bridge to Heaven is a cool place to go," Jyou added, looking to the others for support. He received approving nods and thoughtful uh-huhs and oohs for his suggestion.

"FINE." Izzy rolled his eyes as he continued. "And Day two, since it's the one extra sunny day of our trip, we will be gracing the Kotobikihama Beach* where I hear they have some rhythmically gifted sand. Day three we will attend Matt's favorite band's concert." Matt giddily bounced in his seat after this announcement. "Day four, there is a nice onsen a few miles away that we can all enjoy. My aunt works there, so we get in for free! Then lastly, day five we will be attending the Kyoto Hanatouro*."

"All right guys, let's get packing!" Tai proposed, clapping his hands together as he stood up and proceeded to leave their "meeting."

Sora's eyes followed Tai out of the room then looked back down at her feet. Matt noticed the despondent look on her face and nudged her shoulder lightly. She looked up and gave him a half-hearted smile.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, it's nothing... I just don't know what's wrong with Tai. I tried talking to him after breakfast and he was snappier than usual. I wonder if he's still mad that I was right about Izzy being Hawaiian."

Matt chuckled lightly. Sora was so clueless sometimes. Tai was probably still upset that he caught the two of them, looking quite intimate, in his room the other day. He glanced at her confused expression as she attempted to figure out what was wrong with Tai. "You're too cute Sora," he commented without giving it a second thought. His eyes widened in disbelief. _Did you really say that Matt_? he thought, devastated.

Sora's face turned bright red. Everyone who was still in the room suddenly became silent, simultaneously pretended not to be listening to the two interacting with one another. "What? Shut up Matt..." she mumbled, looking at her hands and fumbling with her fingers. "Thanks.."

Matt suddenly realized how hot his face became. He chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head as he tried not to look Sora in the eye.

As sweet as Matt was at the moment, Sora couldn't help but drift back into her thoughts. She was finally able to have a moment to herself the night before after accidentally finding the letter Tai was so desperately trying to keep her from reading. She snuck the alleged love letter that Mimi talked about into her room and read it over and over, the words keeping her up the entire night…

"Those two are adorable," Mimi whispered to Izzy, oblivious to the thoughts running in Sora's head. "We should set them up."

"We're not doing that anymore Mimi. Last time we tried to set up our friends, it ended in catastrophe," Izzy returned, gesturing toward Catherine and the door where Tai had stepped out. "Besides...how do you know she's into Matt?"

"Ugh. Fine, you could be right. You're no fun baby," Mimi pouted sweetly.

Izzy kissed his girlfriend's cheek. "You're too cute Mimi," he murmured, making Mimi snicker quietly. Izzy joined in the snickering.

O

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Day one of their Spring Break plans went accordingly. The group took a rented van down to Kyoto at the break of dawn and arrived early to Jyou's house. There, they dropped off their belongings and rested up for the big bike ride in the afternoon. After lunch, they grabbed their bikes and took the train to the Bridge to Heaven, a lush, natural landmark a few miles long that bridged two areas of land together. It was absolutely breathless. Izzy and Mimi took the train with them, but parted ways to get to the comic convention. Mimi met up with the rest of the group later that afternoon.

To Izzy's dismay, everyone voted on going to his aunt's onsen after the bike ride. He was the only one who was against the idea, giving the rebuttal that they would have nothing to do on the fourth day. Even Mimi didn't back him up this time. They reassured him it would still be fun to come back even everyday until they had to leave.

"AHHH...This is soo nice," Catherine breathed as she sank deeper into the hot water.

"I hope Izzy's not too mad at me for leaving half-way through the convention. I know he said it was okay, since he knew how much I wanted to go to the Bridge to Heaven...he's so sweet…but I still feel bad," Mimi pouted, pressing her palms to her cheeks.

"Don't be. Izzy could never stay mad at you. I'm just glad we got to go. Of all the years we've lived in Japan I can't believe we've never been there," Sora commented, leaning her head against the stone pavement, her body slouching into the steaming water with the other girls. Sora looked over at Mimi's friend Catherine. _That girl is way too pretty to be real…_ she evaluated, studying the girl's perfect wavy hair, skinny legs and perfect pale complexion. _And her boobs are huge…lucky bitch…_

"We should play a game, girls," Yolei suggested, deviously. The other girls looked at her questioningly. "Come on! I haven't seen anyone in so long! I need some juicy gossip in my life. I mean, Sora's here...I was so small last time I saw her."

"Truth or dare," Mimi chirped, acceding to Yolei's request.

"No!" Sora and Catherine asserted in unison. They looked at each other and gave each other knowing nods.

"Come on!" Yolei begged, shaking Sora's shoulders.

"Sora, truth or dare," Mimi continued, ignoring the stern looks her two friends were giving her.

Sora rolled her eyes. "Dare."

"I dare you to kiss Catherine on the lips for one whole minute."

Sora's eyes widenened, her face got even hotter, despite the already hot onsen. "Noo wayyy—I meant truth—" she began, mortified.

"You have to. You picked dare," Yolei proceeded to urge the game on.

"Ugh..." Sora grabbed Catherine's face and followed through with the dare, giving Catherine her best and most passionate kiss. Catherine was caught off guard, but slowly wrapped her arms around the other girl. Yolei and Mimi squealed as their game began in the perfect manner.

O

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"I wonder what the girls are doing," Michael thought out loud.

Izzy shrugged.

"CANNON BALL!" he shouted. He came sprinting in from a short distance and flung his body into the onsen, curling into a ball as he landed. The rest of the guys seemed unfazed by the force of Tai's enormous splash. Jyou continued to read the book he brought to the hot springs, turning the wet pages eagerly. He was too engrossed in his book to acknowledge Tai's cannon ball.

"They're probably talking about girl stuff. Nails, shoes and how they seem to get their periods around the same time. Stuff like that I'm sure..." Matt responded, laying back lazily, closing his eyes to daydream about being on the girl's side of the onsen. He daydreamed of entering the onsen and having Sora greet him at the entrance with the littlest black bikini. He imagined her coming up to him and wrestling him into the hot springs and slowly undressing him…

Tai popped his head out of the water and glanced at the others with a goofy smile on his face. His frown appeared quickly after realizing that no one was amused with his cannon ball. He glanced over at Matt, who had a goofy smile on his face as well, his eyes closed. Tai rolled his eyes. He couldn't even look Matt in the eye the last two days. Ever since he saw the way Matt and Sora were looking at each other in his bedroom the other day, he was furious at not just Sora, but at his so-called best friend as well. Sora _had_ to know, after all the things they've been through with each other in the last week or so, that he had feelings for her.

And Matt…

His best friend wasn't supposed to swoop in on a girl he so obviously liked.

O

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"LICK IT CLEAN! LICK IT CLEAN!" Sora and Catherine chanted. They watched as Yolei french-kissed Mimi's belly button in an attempt to lick it clean of the chocolate sauce they found in Izzy's aunt's kitchen. They all laughed and cheered as Yolei sat up and lifted her arms in triumph.

"DONE!" she cried.

"All right, Catherine, truth or dare?" Yolei demanded, wiping her chocolate-laden mouth with a towel.

"Truth," Catherine responded timidly.

"Okay, this is a two-part question. What is the dirtiest thing you've done with a boy, and with who? AND don't tell me you're a virgin, 'cause I know you're not."

Catherine gave her a bewildered look. "Yolei, you've GOT to be kidding."

"We're all friends here," she responded boldly.

"Well there was this one time with Tai…" Catherine mumbled, looking down at the water as she spoke. Her face usually had a fair complexion, but as she continued, it turned beet red.

O

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"How was the onsen my love?" Izzy inquired, catching Mimi as she exited the girl's locker room. She smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek. He wrapped an arm around her waist.

"It was lovely. Very relaxing," she replied, giving him a mischievous grin. She skipped ahead of him, linking arms with Catherine and beginning a conversation with her as they left the onsen. Both girls looked very animated as they spoke. They giggled and both glanced quickly at Izzy. They giggled some more and shared knowing looks with one another.

Izzy arched an eyebrow. _What happened in there?_

O

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Sora looked up at the sky. It was midnight and she couldn't sleep despite the relaxing, kind of awkward, trip to the onsen. She still couldn't believe the things Yolei got out of those girls. She didn't know Catherine very well, but she seemed to know too much of that girl now. Tai never told her that he dated not just Mimi, but Catherine as well. She cringed at the depth of the knowledge she had about their relationship and cursed him for being such a pervert. What irked her the most was that Tai didn't tell her that they had ended their relationship just a week before her arrival to Odaiba. There was also the fact that they did _it _(yes, the _deed, a_s in sex, if anyone was too dense to get that) in the passenger's seat of the car that Tai had picked her up with at the airport. She cringed some more.

_You're jealous…_apparently her subconscious was talking to her again.

_I'm not jealous…am I? _she contemplated.

Tai wasn't the only one with dirty laundry though. Evidently, Jyou and Matt had extensive romantic histories as well…both Matt AND Jyou (and Michael, but he has a minor role in this) had dated Mimi at some point in the past and despite Matt's sweet demeanor and eagerness to be in an honest relationship, he broke a few dozen hearts as well. She couldn't believe those girls told her all of that without a lick of alcohol in them. Odaiba girls are indeed crazy.

She shook her head, her mind drifting to other events. Before they left, she was trapped in a corner by her mom, eventually having part of the conversation she dreaded having with her. Her mother expressed her feelings about their situation. She explained her insecurities at the time she and Mr. Takenouchi separated. She begged Sora to listen because there were always two sides to a story. Sora didn't respond to a single thing her mother said, but she listened.

At that moment, she still seemed unable to hear the truth. She gave her mother a smile and assured her they would talk about it when she returned from her spring break trip. Her mother nodded half-heartedly and told her to be safe.

Sora sighed.

"What are you still doing up?" a voice whispered, interrupting Sora's thoughts. She turned and smiled.

"Just thinking about some stuff..." she replied.

Matt walked up to her. "Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'll deal with it when I get home," she answered vaguely. "What's up, Mr. Ishida?"

"Hey...I've been meaning to...um...ask... I mean since I have you alone right now-uh..." Matt looked up at her bravely. _It's now or never_, he told himself. He was tired of waiting for Tai to move in and snatch her. It was his turn to get the great girl. _Sorry Tai, but you had your chance with Sora dozens of times. It's my turn, _he told himself, hoping his best friend wouldn't completely hate him after this.

He could feel his heart beating in his ears, giving him the illusion that they were vibrating. Sora arched a brow questioningly. She couldn't understand why Matt's ears were vibrating so much.

"Something wrong?" she asked, concerned about his ears.

"I like you Sora!" he blurted out. Sora's eyes widened in disbelief. She didn't know what to say or do. Her hands started to feel awkwardly misplaced for some reason.

"Um-"

"Hold on, let me finish. I don't know how you feel about me or if you have feelings for someone else but-just don't say anything now...consider it. It's just that we've been spending a lot of time together since you came back and I've never been able to talk to any girl the way I talk to you. It's not just that...you're so hot and-" he paused, mustering up some courage to continue.

Sora gazed at him, blushing wildly. He was definitely a tad more straightforward that Tai was. "Um-Matt..."

"No. I can't handle rejection from you right now. It's late and Jyou said people are more emotionally vulnerable at nighttime so if you want to break my heart, do it in the morning. Just think about it...and maybe we can even go on a real date when we get back to Odaiba. That is, if you decide you kinda have some feelings for me too-yeah...okay. So, uh...good night." Matt flew back inside the house before Sora could even open her mouth to speak.

Sora smiled, mildly amused. _Matt...likes me?_ she asked herself in disbelief._ I guess I'm just super awesome like that_, she joked with herself. Then she frowned, heading back into the house with the others. _I REALLY need to stop talking to myself..._

Off in a short distance from where Sora and Matt were talking, Tai sat quietly in an old tire swing hanging from a nearby tree. He swung back and forth softly, contemplating deeply. He wasn't sure how to feel about the confession he just heard his best friend give to the girl of his dreams.

O

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A/N: GAHH! A new chapter is up after ALLLLL THESE YEARS! I'm still going =))


	12. Liquid Courage

A/N: Hey guys here's chapter 12! I already have the ending planned out. Thanks for reading!

Spring Ranting

Chapter twelve – Liquid Courage

Day two of their vacation came and went. Unfortunately for the disappointed teens, the weather man was DEAD wrong about the "bright" and "sunny" day they were supposed to have, and instead were greeted with a heavy downpour and even a few thunderclouds. Instead of a beautiful day of basking in the warm sun, listening to the musical sounds of the sand, and playing in the cool ocean water, they were shoved off the beach by lifeguards and beach security. The drive back to Jyou's was an uneventful and quiet one. Eventually they shrugged off the setback and raided Jyou's grandpa's liquor cabinet, only taking the replaceable cheap sake he loved so much.

"Sorry the trip hasn't gone as planned so far guys," Izzy said a little morosely. Mimi rubbed his shoulder comfortingly.

"Iz, it's not your fault that the weather decided to change on us. It's the weather man's fault. He should have known. This is unacceptable," Mimi reassured him, a scary look crossing her face as she thought about how the weather man should pay for his crappy forecast.

"Hey, lots of things in life don't go as planned. They're called adventures," Yolei remarked, "Another shot guys!"

The group took simultaneous shots of sake.

"Hey…we should play that game we played at the hot springs." After the suggestion Yolei made, the girls shot her a look of pure evil.

"NO!" They barked in unison.

This sparked the boys' interests. "What happened at the hot springs?" Izzy asked.

"Please tell us there was some making out involved," Michael chimed in, not realizing how perfect his question was for this moment.

The four girls looked uneasy, making the boys even more curious.

Tai froze. _When girls are playing games, it usually involves talking…about secret things…oh this might not be good. If Mimi or Catherine talked about anything inappropriate—_

"Nothing happened! We were just…playing truth or dare," Mimi finished, wishing the last four words didn't come out of her uncontrollably honest mouth.

"Oh really?" Matt had a stupid smirk on his face.

"Stop thinking dirty thoughts Matt, it was an innocent game that we are most DEFINITELY not playing right now!" Sora retaliated, earning a sheepish look from Matt.

"Yeah, it's 3 a.m. anyway, I think I'll head off to bed," Tai said agreeing with Sora, getting up from his sitting position on the ground and heading off to the bedrooms. "G'nite!"

As if on cue the others muttered their good nights, got up and headed to bed as well. Sora gave a sigh of pure relief. There was no way they were going to play that game. She couldn't hear another word about Tai and Catherine's physical relationship. It just made her nauseous. She wasn't sure if it was jealousy or embarrassment or guilt she was feeling, but it just made her really grossed out. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Catherine pull Tai back into the living room. She watched them curiously for a second, debating on whether to follow them or not, but decided against it, instead stomping into her room and shutting the door.

"Tai? Can we talk really quick? I know you're tired and all…" Catherine whispered, releasing her loose hold on his arm.

"Of course."

Her face was flushed, probably from all the bottles of sake they went through, but they seemed to get redder as she looked deeply into his eyes.

"Is it weird that I'm here on this trip with you and your friends?"

"Wha—no! Of course not! They're your friends too you know. You and Mimi are really good friends and I know you have lunch with Matt, Izzy and Michael during school all the time. What are you talking about?"

"I know, but I don't really know your friends Sora and Jyou."

"They're both really nice people. Besides, you guys seem to all be getting along really well," Tai reassured her. He could tell she wanted to talk about serious matters and it made him a little uneasy. He really did feel a little awkward about her being here after their very recent break-up.

"Yeah…"

"Something wrong Catherine?"

"Well…Yolei kind of made me think. Mentioning what happened at the hot springs made me think about you…well I've been thinking a whole lot about you since we broke up."

Tai kept his mouth shut. They broke up for a reason. He knew it was still fresh for Catherine, but it had been a long time coming for Tai. He just couldn't handle the constant fighting, breaking up and making up. It seemed to be happening at least twice a week and he was exhausted. He knew Catherine was too. It wasn't that Catherine was a bad girlfriend, in fact, she was the best he's had so far, she was just too insecure about their relationship. He would have lunch with Izzy one afternoon and forget his phone, and then as soon as he'd return home, there would be 15 missed calls and four voicemails from Catherine accusing him of being unfaithful.

He tried getting advice from friends, but they all said he must have done something wrong to make her so distrustful of him. He couldn't believe his own friends said that to him! But he didn't do a thing! At least in his eyes…

"What happened at the hot springs?" Tai asked the dreaded question.

"We played a stupid game of truth or dare and honestly I didn't really want to play but they insisted and I didn't want to be a party foul. Then they were doing these crazy dares and I didn't want to do any dares so I kept saying truth…Yolei got me to say things about you and I…" Catherine rambled.

Tai couldn't believe her. "Catherine! Our relationship is our business, not theirs! You were just talking about how you barely know Sora and here you are telling her about our entire relationship?"

"Well I found out you were madly in love with Sora when you were younger."

"I wasn't _madly_ in love with her. Who even said that?"

"Apparently all your friends knew except Sora who thought you hated her."

"This is unbelievable," Tai sighed. In the back of his mind, he _really, really_ wanted to know what dares they did at the hot springs, but the overwhelming anger he was feeling toward Catherine and Mimi for revealing his secrets was taking over.

"It all makes sense to me now!" Catherine continued.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Tai shot back. He knew Catherine was drunk, why did they have to talk about this now?

"Ever since the hot springs I've been more than aware of the way you look at Sora. You've _never_ looked at me the way you look at her. You were a child back then, how could you still harbor the same feelings for her after not seeing her for four years! It kind of makes me think our whole relationship was a joke!" At this point Catherine had started crying and Tai had his arms around her.

"No, hey—Cat, stop crying please. I don't know where you got this idea from. I did like Sora back then, but that was a long time ago. She's more like a sister to me than anything now. I mean we have to live with each other for a while and all we do is fight about stupid things…like siblings do. I couldn't think of her that way anymore. I haven't been looking at her any differently than I've been looking at everyone else, I swear," Tai blatantly lied. He couldn't understand why the lies poured out of him like that. _What am I doing? _He wondered, mentally kicking himself as he stroked Catherine's hair. He just wanted her to stop crying.

"Really?" Catherine asked softly, a little hiccup escaping her red lips.

Tai's lies were never ending. "Yes." _No. I'm a big fat, fatty liar and not only are my pants on fire but my briefs are too! Gods…briefs? Why didn't you wash your boxers before the trip…_ Tai's thoughts went completely off topic.

"I'm really sorry I never trusted you…you never did anything wrong. Gods, I must've seemed like a psycho girlfriend," Catherine laughed, wiping her tears as Tai's arms released her from his hold.

"No! You weren't a psycho girlfriend. You were great. I just wish you trusted me more when we were together. I never cheated on you and would never cheat on any girl I'm dating. I wish you knew that…" Tai said, his voice a little more serious. At least he was honest about that.

"I know. And I'm really sorry again. I wish I could make it up to you," Catherine murmured, placing her hand gently against his chest. Tai didn't know if it was the sake going to his head, but he was absolutely mesmerized by Catherine's large, sapphire eyes. She knew she was pretty and was taking advantage of it at that very moment. He could feel his mouth moving closer to her moist red lips. His face suddenly felt hotter than normal. Her mouth looked so inviting…

He stopped himself. _I can't do this to Sora. Not when I have these feelings for her…_

Curious little Sora had indeed followed the two into the living room, after debating with herself in her bedroom. She was too curious about what Catherine wanted with Tai and couldn't think about sleeping knowing she could eavesdrop so easily. Too bad Tai hadn't noticed her shadow in the hallway.

_I'm just like a sister to him? _Sora thought, feeling a little hurt and angry about the comment. _He thinks of me as a sister after what almost happened on the roof the other day? After we kissed and almost…ugh! That jerk must have some pretty weird fetish for incest! Bastard!_

She had become quite the outspoken person after her last boyfriend ended up being engaged to someone else. She wanted to give Tai a piece of her mind at this point and she didn't care that this was a private conversation between him and Catherine. She knew in her heart she felt something for Tai, but now her feelings felt a little betrayed. She was embarrassed at the thought that Tai would kiss her so passionately and then go behind her back to tell his ex-girlfriend that he thought they were siblings. She couldn't understand this boy.

The sake wasn't helping her understand better either. The liquid courage was only fueling her desire to go up to him and punch him square in the nose and smack is crazy ex-girlfriend. As she turned to do just that, her face faltered. Tai was about to kiss Catherine.

_That jerk is going to kiss her. I can't believe it. I can't believe I thought he had feelings for me…_ she thought dejectedly. She turned back to her room, anger dissipating, not wanting to see the rest of the scene play out.

"No, I can't Catherine, I'm sorry…look we've both been drinking. Let's finish this talk when we're both thinking clearly. Good night," Tai whispered releasing his hold of Catherine. She looked disappointed but it couldn't be helped. Tai gave her hand a quick squeeze before retreating to the hallway to his bedroom. He knew that if he stayed there any longer, he would end up doing something he would regret in the morning.

O

O

The next morning couldn't come any sooner for a certain blond musician.

Matt was in the room Jyou had assigned him, staring at the Samui Kodomo tickets he had in his hands. Some of the others had planned to stay at Jyou's shrine for the day, still depressed over the surprising rain from yesterday that somehow seeped into present day.

Izzy had been thoughtful enough to buy everyone's concert tickets as part of the preparation for the trip, but even he decided to stay at the shrine since Mimi was complaining that they didn't spend enough alone time with each other during the vacation.

That was Tai's cue to grab the remaining tickets and proclaim his quest to re-sell the tickets to the box office and get Izzy's money back. Matt took the opportunity to grab two of the tickets before Tai could grab all of them. He knew he would need two for what he had planned.

"Knock, knock," came a familiar redhead's voice. He looked up and smiled at her.

"Hey Sora, what's up?"

She became self-conscious all of a sudden and looked down at her entwined hands. After witnessing the conversation between Tai and Catherine the night before, she made up her mind and decided she couldn't involve herself with someone who had just gotten out of a relationship. Tai's words cut through her like a knife and after the relationships she'd had, she didn't want to get hurt again.

Matt, on the other hand, was so sure of what he wanted. He made it clear he had feelings for her and didn't complicate it when ex-girlfriends or ambiguity. He was straightforward, honest, and to top it all off, he was damn hot. She smiled, remembering the day Matt ditched school to take her to see Jyou all those days ago. He had been so sweet and so easy to talk to…

She wasn't sure what she was going to tell him at that point. But she did decide she would give him some kind of answer to his question. "Um…about the other night…I know we didn't get a chance to speak alone yesterday—"

Matt shook his head. "Look Sora, you don't have to say anything…I feel like I put a lot of pressure on you that night. I feel bad…all I wanted to do was tell you how I felt about you, not give you some sort of deadline." He smiled softly at her. "I really, really like you."

Sora couldn't help but feel warm inside. "I like you too," she replied, returning the smile. _Forget about Tai… _she told herself.

"Hey, you wanna sit with me at the concert? I don't know if you're a fan of Samui Kodomo—"

"Are you kidding me? I love these guys! I have them on my iPod. I love how they mix rock with electro, progressive and techno. It's bizarre but so awesome!"

Matt's eyes lit up. He couldn't help but think that Sora was _the_ perfect girl at that very moment. "Really? Wow—that's great! Hey, maybe after the concert we can get something to eat and you can show me what other artists you have on your iPod?"

"Like a date?" Sora found herself asking, nervously.

Matt shrugged. "Um…yeah…or no…depending on what makes you comfortable," he responded, trying to read her expression.

"No, I don't mind, really! You just caught me off guard, that's all," she answered, a pink hue appearing on her face as she looked away from him.

"I really don't like hiding my feelings from someone I like. At least not anymore, Sora. I'm sorry if I'm so forward with you but I've been such a depressing load of crap for the better half of my life because of my fear of getting hurt that I never opened up to anyone. I think you're the first girl to make me feel comfortable in years," he told her, standing up and walking toward her as he spoke. "And I really like that feeling."

Sora couldn't believe what she just heard. Her emotions were so mixed. She was attracted to Matt, yes, but she knew she had conflicting feelings for Tai that weren't just going to go away even after her eavesdropping session yesterday. The thing was, Matt had been so open with his feelings; which was so refreshing compared to the way Tai had been treating her. One minute Tai was insulting her and the next minute he was holding her tight, comforting her after she saw her mother with _that man_.

She smiled. Well if Tai wasn't going to confront her about his feelings, why should she make an effort with him? Especially when Matt was here, baring everything. Plus, though she wouldn't even admit it to herself, she was still upset about hearing all those things about his and Catherine's relationship. The fact that he hinted having feelings for her after _very recently_ breaking up with the poor girl irked her a little. And that kiss they shared on her roof…

"Of course I'll go with you," she whispered. As the whisper escaped her mouth, she realized that Matt was now standing right in front of her, looking quite happy at the response she gave him. A lump suddenly caught in her throat when he touched her cheek. Her face was on fire.

"Score!" he answered excitedly. "I thought you might say no."

"Why would I? I like you too Matt…I really do. And don't apologize for being straightforward. It's actually a huge relief," she found herself saying. Matt was stroking her cheek now, and she welcomed it, leaning her face into his hand and closing her eyes.

"Sora…I think I might kiss you…" he murmured. His face was only centimeters from hers. She gazed at his closed eyes. She could tell he was unsure by the way his breathing stalled. He was waiting for her to close the gap between them. Her eyes fluttered shut when she finally leaned in and brushed her lips against his. He shivered at the electricity he felt between the mild contact and he hoped she felt it too. The kiss intensified when he became more confident and she grasped the front of his shirt tightly in her small hands. He pulled her closer to him, hoping their kiss would never end.

O

O

It was his chance to finally talk to her.

Tai was in the living room holding a pair of the concert tickets Izzy had gotten for the group. He had the others stashed in his backpack to sell back to the box office when they got there. Maybe if Sora would just sit next to him at that concert then maybe the music and the crowds of people would make it less awkward for him to tell her how he felt.

Ever since that night he saw Matt confess his feelings to Sora, he couldn't help but feel enraged and even a little bitter toward his "best friend." But of course, it wasn't like he _told_ Matt he had feelings for Sora. The feelings he had toward Sora that Matt knew about belonged in the past. And they had only been children then.

His eyes lit up when he saw Sora walk into the living room. She looked slightly flustered, but the look disappeared when she started chatting with Izzy, Mimi, Jyou and Yolei as they continued to play their game of Monopoly. He walked over to the group and pretended to be interested. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about Sora the entire trip. His talk with Catherine last night just made his feelings for her so much clearer and it was time for him to gather a little courage.

"Who's winning?" he asked, looking down at the board game, trying not to look at Sora.

"Ugh…Izzy. He's too good at this game," Mimi sulked, throwing her remaining property cards on the ground.

"I think he's cheating," Yolei muttered.

"I just excel at board games, what can I say losers!" Izzy boasted. Then he blushed. "Sorry guys, I get way too aggressively competitive with these things…take them away from me! It's a curse!"

"I don't want to play with you anymore," Jyou pouted, walking away from the board. Mimi and Yolei agreed, leaving Izzy alone.

"Wha—guys! Hey, you're all winners inside!" he tried to tell them.

"Hey Sora, can I talk to you for a second?" Tai asked, turning to Sora. She looked up at him questioningly before nodding and following him out the front door.

"What's up Tai? You haven't spoken to me much since we came to Kyoto. What do you want now?"

_Ouch,_ he thought. _Well, I really haven't. I don't blame her…_

"You're right…I'm sorry about that. I've just been thinking a lot about—our living situation…and about the whole Izzy being Hawaiian thing…" he lied. He hoped Sora didn't catch on to his lie.

"Well?" she asked, unfazed by his excuse.

"Um—well see…" he began. He started scratching his head and his feet were fidgeting. "I was wondering if you'd want to sit with me at the Samui Kodomo concert…maybe we could even have dinner after and talk…" he trailed off, looking away.

Sora's breath caught in her throat. _No way…it's either he feels bad about ignoring me or he…no there's no way…after last night?_ she thought.

She shook her head. "Tai…I'm so sorry, I already said I'd go sit with Matt. He's taking me somewhere to eat after the concert too…" Sora's voice sounded guilty.

Tai's heart dropped. He was too late. "Oh."

"Tai—"

Tai forced a smile on his face. He couldn't believe Matt got to ask her first. He should have told her how he felt when he had the chance. He had so many opportunities back home. He mentally kicked himself. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. They lived together for god sake! He could have told her so many times. Even that time he came to comfort her on her roof and it ended with a kiss…

"It's cool," he interrupted her. "I just felt bad 'cause I _have_ been kind of avoiding you. I mean, I shouldn't be bitter about you being right about Izzy being Hawaiian. I should just accept defeat."

Sora furrowed a brow. She knew he was full of crap. She wasn't _that _dense. There was definitely something else, but she didn't want to assume anything. There was a twinge of concern on her face, but he gave her a very believable smile and chuckle after his last comment.

"All right, well I think we're leaving around 5 o'clock so be at the van by then. Matt's driving," she told him before smiling. "Hey I'm gonna try to convince the others to come, they're being so lame!"

Tai's face faltered as soon as Sora turned around. He felt shattered after getting rejected by the one girl he wanted the most. After all these years, Sora still managed to break is heart all over again without realizing it…

"Tai?" came a soft voice. Tai looked up to find Catherine staring at him with her bright blue eyes.

"Hey Cat," he replied, his words coming out a little sadder than he wanted.

Catherine didn't seem to notice the tone of his voice. She was just happy he wasn't calling her by her full name anymore. She loved it when he called her "Cat" even though it was a common nickname for her among her friends. When he said it, she felt giddy every time.

"So, um, I was wondering if I could get one of those Samui Kodomo tickets. I really like them and I didn't get a chance to grab one of the tickets earlier…" she said.

Tai's eyes lit up for a second. "Really? How about you sit with me?"

Catherine beamed. "That would be awesome. Maybe you can come with me to Zu Zu. It's this pub I found down the street from the shrine. We can just walk back after."

"Sounds perfect."

O

O

Tai didn't know how it happened, but after a few drinks at Zu Zu, he and Catherine ended up in her room, tangled in each other's arms, their lips trapped in a fervent kiss. Alcohol and teenage hormones were the obviously the culprits of the incident.

_No, no, no! This is a bad idea Tai, _he told himself, even though he didn't fight Catherine when she pulled his t-shirt up over his arms.

Sora and Matt returned, a few minutes after them, both crashing onto the loveseat in the main living room, exhausted and full from the concert and dinner.

"Where did Tai and Catherine go?" Sora wondered, mainly to herself, but Izzy and Mimi who were watching a movie, heard her.

"Tai went to Catherine's room. Those two seriously need to work out their issues. One day, he's babbling about you and the next day he's making up with his ex-girlfriend. No one can understand Tai nowadays," Izzy muttered, not realizing what he was saying. Mimi nudged him violently, softly reprimanding him.

"Izzy…you idiot!" she scowled.

"I meant—oh gosh—" Izzy tried to correct himself, but it was too late. He scratched his head and laughed nervously.

"Oh," Sora said, frowning. She turned to Matt. "Hey Matt thanks for today. I really had a good time with you. I think I'm gonna head to bed. I'm pretty tired."

As she got up, Matt stood up with her. He was a little puzzled with her decision. "Oh okay…yeah me too…it was fun…"

"Good night."

She walked down the hall to her room, only to bump into Tai. She gave him a weak smile before muttering an "excuse me" to get past him. Tai obviously just came from Catherine's room, and by the looks of his rather crazier-than-usual hair, she could only imagine what they did in there. She cringed and avoided standing there any longer with him.

"Sora—hey! Um did you have fun at the concert?" he asked, quickly, hoping she would stop rushing to get away from him.

"Yeah, I'm going to bed, good night," she replied shortly.

"Hey are you mad at me?"

"Just leave me alone Tai," she snapped, slamming her bedroom door shut behind her.

Tai stood there, dumbfounded. He always seemed to make Sora mad. What now? Did she resent him for asking her to go to the concert with him? Did she dislike him that much?

The thought of Sora actually hating him sunk him into a deeper depression. He walked to his own bedroom, exhausted. It took him all the power in the world to reject Catherine's offer to sleep with him. He just couldn't do it knowing he still liked Sora.

_Even if she hates me and likes Matt…_he thought, dejectedly. Replaying her rejection in his head made it hurt all the more. He walked over to his bed and slumped into it. Even with the alcohol still drifting in his system, he couldn't seem to close his eyes and go to sleep. He wondered whether he should just suck it up and get back together with Catherine.

"This trip was a bad idea…" he thought, staring up at the ceiling, wide awake.

O

O

A/N: From things I read online, underage drinking isn't really a big deal in Japan (at least in the smaller cities and rural areas) as long as you don't get too rowdy in public. But that's all opinion. Oh well, if I'm wrong, don't correct me. Thanks. NEXT!


End file.
